Nightmares to Dreams
by BloodlessBlackCat
Summary: A little seven year old mutant child is found and saved. She only trusts one person. Logan, the man that saved her. Not just her life, but from lonliness too, even though he may not know it. Now with a demon mutant with the power to cast nightmares and make them a reality comes into play against the mutants and humans alike, the strange duo must stop him together, or not at all.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi thanks for reading this! Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men (As much as I want too). I only own the story and my oc. Feedback and comments is always appreciated. I like both positive and negative comments, tell me whats good and what I need to fix! PLZ enjoy ^.^**

Chapter 1: Kid

"So what are we looking for again?" The clawed mutant asked with a huff, taking a glance from his place on the ship at Storm. She looked at the ship's radar and turned the craft to the left a little before answering the man.

"Another mutant. Xavier said she was around here." Storm simply explained.

"She?"

"Yep." Storm nodded. "A girl. A kid actually, if you wanna be technical." Logan grunted in response.

"Aren't they all kids?" Cyclops mused from his seat. "I mean the mutants we're always looking for, aren't they almost always kids?" Storm nodded again, turning the ships wheel to the left again.

"Yes. But Xavier made a point to tell us this one was a child. So I'm a little curious what the difference is." She shrugged in her seat. "We're coming up on the drop spot, buckle in boys."

"Yes ma'am." The two men sighed.

**(On The Ground Not Too Far Away)**

She ran. And ran. And ran. Then tripped. She flipped over the small rock and went barreling down the rocky hill, hitting her head multiple times in the process. When she hit a fallen tree limb, it caused her to flip and crash into the cold forest floor.

"Ouch…" The tiny girl mumbled, her white hair was stained in brown-dirt patches from hitting the ground and mud over and over during her run. It stuck to her face and body, probably caused by the fact her hair was as long as her tiny body itself.

"There she is!" A man on top of the rocky hill bellowed to his hunting pals. The girl's eyes went wide, then she stood unsteadily before running again. "Shoot her!" He yelled to the man with a rifle.

As she ran she thought she saw a silver thing streak across the sky, but it was hard to tell with her running for her life and the treetops blocking off most of the sky. Unfortunately, she wasn't paying attention like she should have, and suddenly felt a sharp burn in her left leg, causing her to shriek in pain and fall to the floor again.

"Nice shot man!" One of the three guys cheered at his buddies aim. He had shot her right in the back of the knee. She screamed in pain, clutching her wounded knee. As the three came closer she panicked. Now what? She can't run. Obviously. She can't fight, at least not normally. She'd kill them, and she wasn't a murderer. She'd let them kill her first. But she didn't want to die. She was afraid of death, like she didn't like the dark.

"Ok what first?" The one who shot her said, pointing the rifle at her head.

"No man, that would kill her!" The biggest man said. "We don't want the kid not to feel anything."

"Good point." He moved the gun to her right shoulder blade. "Here?"

"Better." His friend, the third one, with a knife, grinned.

**(Back a little)**

"A kid is running around in this?!" Cyclops griped, nearly tripping over the rocks. It was nearly dusk, and he couldn't see a fucking thing. Dusk and fog do not mix well.

"Not as weird as that oil plant last month." Logan grumbled back.

"He was a fire using mutant! It at least made sense!" Was the snappy reply.

"Oh shut up." The clawed one barked.

"Make me!"

"Ladies shut up!" Storm snapped, running a few yards ahead of them.

Suddenly a gun shot was heard, followed by a shrill screech of pain that would make anyone sick in the stomach.

"Found her." The Wolverine muttered, kicking his sprint up a notch. After a minute or so, another shot was heard, followed by the same shriek. That's when he made it to the scene.

Three men, obviously hunters, were circled around a pile of white, brown, and red. It was a small child. The kid was yelling in pain, clutching her leg and shaking. The men above her were laughing. That's when Logan saw red cloud his vision.

**(The girl)**

"Ok where next?" The bigger one smiled down at their handy work so far. The one with the knife pointed his sharp object at her fingers. "Perfect. What do you think Barry?" He looked over to where his rifle buddy was to see him gone. Well not standing. His body was crumpled on the floor, his head was bouncing away.

"Ya know I'm really interested in finding out why three hunters like yourselves are after a little kid like this." A gruff voice made him whip around to see a man with three claws pointed at his throat.

"None of your business." The one with the knife barked. In one quick movement, Logan had grabbed him, slashed through his torso, and flipped him over his body, landing with a loud thud. The last one screamed and ran for it. Logan began following,but a small shuffle made him turn around. The girl was now standing and slowly trying to make a break for it, limping agonizingly and sniffling, trying not to cry.

"Hey kid." He said, sheathing his claws and taking some steps towards the child that barely came up to his hip. When she heard him stepping closer, she turned to him and glared, yet fear was as clear as day.

"Stay away from me!" She yelled, just as Storm and Cyclops made it to the area.

"Logan what happened?" Storm coughed out, surveying the scene around them.

"Just a pest problem. Don't worry about it." He growled, before turning back to the shivering kid that was taking glances at the three adults. Cyclops pointed at her.

"Is that the kid?" He asked, making said child stiffen and back up a few steps. Storm nodded. Logan took another step towards her, which made her take three more back.

"Chill kid, I ain't gonna hurt ya." She shook her head.

"Those guys said that too! And look at what happened!" She spat out. Logan groaned, mentally cussing the crap out of the three pricks that made his job so much worse. He looked back at Storm and Cyclops.

"Lemme take care of the Kid, you guys handle that would ya?" He motioned to the mess he caused. Storm nodded, knowing too many people would scare the little girl. Cyclops gave him a glare as he followed Storm, carrying a decapitated body.

"Yes your highness! I love cleaning up your messes!" He spat, yet followed the weather Mutant, leaving Logan with the tiny, pissed off, hurt, sad, shivering Kid.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Snappy Brat's and Handshakes

Logan sat down on the cold ground, not ten feet from the Kid he had saved about ten minutes ago.

"Go away." Said child barked at the gruff looking man. He just killed her pursuers true, but he's just one guy! And he killed all three of them in less than two minutes. No she didn't want to be near him!

"Chill out kid I'm not a threat to you." He huffed, pulling a cigar out of his back pocket and lighting it with a small silver lighter.

"I don't believe you." She glared. He snorted.

"I bet. Listen," He puffed out some smoke, "Did you see what I did to those creeps?" She nodded once. "Did I do that to you?" She shook her head. "There ya go." He shrugged. She wasn't convinced. All adults that she had trusted betrayed and hurt her. She was NOT going to fall for that again.

While the kid glared daggers at him, Logan finally got a decent look at her. She was sitting next to a tree trunk, making her look twice as tin than she already was. She looked no older than maybe seven. She had albino hair like Storm, but hers was long. Really long. It went down to her feet when she stands up. Right now it was basically a silver pool around her feet, like silky snow. She wore a simple pale pink nightgown, and no shoes. Her feet were cut up and bloody as hell as a result. Her skin was extremely pale, which the white hair didn't help. She was tiny and very thin. Too thin, even for her. But what really caught his attention, was her eyes. They were rainbow. Like all the colors were thrown in all at once. It seemed molten too, they seemed to glow and shimmer even in the dark fog surrounding the duo.

"Why won't you go away?" She snapped, pulling him back to their conversation.

"Cause I don't wanna." He said, puffing out more smoke. She groaned.

"Why?"

"Cause."

"Who the heck are you?" She said then, realizing this guy won't leave her to herself. He smirked a bit.

"Logan." She rolled her eyes.

"That's a simple name." She said. He was about to retort but she added. "Though, it seems to fit you, Logan." He nodded. She seemed to be calming down a bit, not by much, but at least a little.

"What about you kiddo?" Logan asked, pointing at her with his cigar. The girl looked at him for a second.

"Rilou. Rilou Ontario." She said with a proud vibe.

"Rilou? That's a guys name" He joked. She gaped at him.

"IT IS NOT!" She yelled, her face turning red. "It can be either." She barked. Logan chuckled a bit.

"Sure, sure, whatever you say kid." He said with a laugh. Rilou huffed. _'jerk.'_ She spat in her head. _'first he scares me to death, then he makes fun of me. Speaking of which…'_

"Hey Logan?" She asked.

"Ya."

"Are a cat mutant or something?" He gave her a nice long stare.

"No."

"But you have claws." She argued.

"Do you always argue with adults this much?" Rilou shook her head.

"No just people in general." She corrected. "I hate being wrong."

"Well, then we have something in common." Logan snickered. This kid was more fun than he first thought. "Hey kid, why were those pricks after you?" He asked, really curious. He had asked the three ass hat's themselves, but no one had answered him then. The clawed mutant saw the girl give a pitiful look, then a small giggle. He rose a brow at her.

"I uhh…well." She shook her head. "I was walking in here a good ways north…or south…I don't remember." She raked a hand through her dirty hair. "I heard the three men shooting guns so I climbed a tree so they wouldn't see me when they passed by. But when they got to the tree I was in they saw a deer and went to shoot it." She clutched her hurt leg, but Logan didn't move to check her wounds. It might scare her again. "So I threw my shoes at them and screamed at the deer to run for its life." She smiled a little girl smile. "Long story to short, they didn't appreciate that very much."

"So they tried to kill you for ruining their hunt?"

"And whacking them in the head with my shoes." She added proudly.

"You proud of that ain't ya kid?" He said, making her nod in response. "Lemme check those shot wounds of yours."

"No." She growled, glaring again. Then she looked herself over. "…Fine." Rilou gave him a warning look. "Keep your shiny things in your hand though."

"Shiny th-oh my claws." He huffed. "Sure." He stood up and brushed himself off a bit before making his way over to Rilou. He squatted in front of her, and took a look at her. She was covered in cuts and bruises. She had three bullet holes that he could see. One through her knee, one on her shoulder blade, and one in the left shoulder. "Three shots. I heard two." He mumbled to himself.

"He shot me out of the tree." She said stiffly. He nodded, then pat her head softly. Well, as soft as he could be. He wasn't exactly a nice guy in the first place.

"We need to get you to the school to fix you up." At those words she paled whiter than the clean parts of her hair. "What kid?"

"You're from the school?" She squeaked out.

"The mutant academy yeah." She visibly sighed.

"Oh…ok then." He gave her a 'wtf' look, but she wouldn't meet his gaze.

"What school are you talking about Kid?" He asked. She just shook her head again. Just then, Storm and Cyclops walked into the scene.

"We should go." Storm said softly. Logan turned a bit to her. "I'll be there with Rilou here in a second."

"Rilou?" Cyclops muttered.

"The kid." Logan said bluntly. Storm nodded.

"You're going to be fine Rilou." She said, walking away with laser boy in tow. "We're going to take you somewhere safe. You won't have to run anymore."

The child only shook her head again, not in defiance, but in disbelief. "I can never stop running." She mumbled. Logan glanced at the kid before picking her tiny body like a father would. At first, Rilou flipped. She didn't scream, but she did flailed in his arms, forgetting the burning pain shooting through her.

"Chill out Kid." He grunted, tightening his grip. She flailed a bit more, then huffed in annoyance and went limp.

"Fine."

**(Time Skip To School: Nothing interesting happens on the Ship)**

"And that should do it." A nurse, a woman mutant who could heal others, said happily, looking over her work. Rilou was no longer covered in bruises and cuts. The bullet holes were closed, but still bandaged for safety. She was given crutches for her kneecap which, thanks to the nurse lady, would heal faster than normal but still take a week or so to walk without slight pain. She had a few Band-Aid's here and there, and her left hand was wrapped in a cast-like tape.

Logan joked that she looked like a hurt mummy. She whacked him in the head with one of her crutches.

"So what do you think honey?" The nurse lady asked kindly.

"These make great thwacking sticks!" Rilou beamed, referring to the sticks she had just used on her saviors hard head. The lady laughed.

"Don't do that too much love, or they'll break." The kid nodded in reply and Logan noticed something. She opens up to you if you're honest and patient. She opens up quite quickly too. At least to the right people anyway. "Now I'm sure the Professor wants to see you Honey. Why not go see him?" She said sweetly, helping the child off the metal table.

"Ok. But where is he?" Rilou asked no one in particular. Logan answered regardless.

"I'm taking you to him. Wouldn't want the y to lose her way and get more hurt, eh kid?"

"I'M NOT A MUMMY!" She squealed.

"Tell that to the bandages." She whacked him again. "Hey!"

"Big mouth."

"Brat."

"Fur face!"

"Welp."

"Doof face." And with that she hobbled out of he med-bay. "Stupid cat."

"I'm not a cat!" He barked in irritation.

**Hi thanks for reading chapter two! Commenting on my work is always nice. Tell me what you think! What do I need to fix? I enjoy both positive and negative feedback ^.^**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The School for Mutants

"So…who is this Professor guy?" Rilou asked Logan, hobbling with her crutches. Logan walked her slow ass pace, partly cause he didn't care about the time it took to get there, and partly cause he didn't want the shrimp to hurt herself again.

"He's the head of the school here." Was his blunt reply.

"Like the principle?" The pipsqueak said more than asked.

"Yep. Pretty much."

"So you're a teacher then." Logan laughed a bit.

"Kinda I guess." Really all he did was beat the crap out of students in the Danger room. And he was happy with that.

"Oh. Hey I forgot to ask!" She chirped as they rounded a corner and into a thinner hallway. "If you're not a cat, what are you?" Logan shot a set of his silver claws out.

"A Wolverine." He said, showing her the claws. She poked the side of one and mouthed something that looked like 'wow'.

"Does that hurt?" Rilou asked as he slipped them back in his skin.

"Yep." They got to the end of the hallway and Rilou outwardly groaned. Stairs. She had to go down stairs. Wahh.

"I dunno if I can get down there." She mumbled to the claw mutant. He held a hand to her. She just stared at it.

"C'mon." He barked half-heartedly, picking her up with one hand, and her crutches in the other. Rilou, surprised from the lift, squeaked like a mouse and wrapped her arms around his neck so she made herself sure she wouldn't fall. And just to mess with the tiny bundle of albino in his arms, Logan didn't just walk down the steps, but jumped and did a flip, landing on the bottom floor with a loud thunk, along with Rilou's shriek of terror. He just carried her to Xavier's office instead of dropping the tinker toy. And with his manners, waltzed right into the room without knocking, earning a light glare from Storm, but a happy smile from the Professor.

"Hello Logan. Having fun?" He said to his clawed friend. Logan chuckled and sat Rilou down in one of the comfy black chairs while he stood behind it.

_'Who's the bald guy?' _Rilou thought to herself, finally calm from Logan's earlier Asinine behavior.

"My name is Professor Xavier, Rilou." He answered her out loud. She gaped at him.

"How?! What? Wha?!" She studdered. He chuckled at the girl.

"I am a mutant, like yourself." He explained.

"You read minds, mister?" He nodded. _'Great…' _

"This is Ororo, or Storm, I'm sure you two have met at least once before."

"Hello Rilou. Nice to see you again." The short haired albino gave the child a warm smile. Rilou only nodded, still not trusting anyone in this room apart from Fur-Face.

"Now Rilou, I got these two plus Scott, or Cyclops, to come help you and take you here." The girl gave him a quizzical look.

"Why?"

"Because I-we want to help you, little one." Rilou shook her head.

"You can't." Was her reply.

"Maybe not just I, but the school together can keep you safe and hidden."

"I don't want to be hidden!" She argued. Storm and Logan were both confused, but listening anyway, trying to piece things a bit. "I run and I'm in danger! I know that! But I don't want to hide mister. I like seeing the world. I like being free." Xavier contemplated this. "You can't make me stay."

"I know that youngling." The professor said, soft smile still on his face. "We will come to a compromise at another time. For now, at east stay until you are well enough to leave safely."

Rilou seemed to think long about this. _'It makes since. But what if he's lying? What if they want to hurt me? I know! I'll agree, then sneak away later! I'm not staying in one place to long again. Last time it was a big mess, so this is best.'_ She looked at the professor, forgetting that he could read her thoughts, and nodded.

"Ok I'll stay, but just for a little while. I can't stay too long." The Professor nodded in reply.

"We have a room for you. It's down by the hall to the Danger room so you won't have to worry about the stairs." Rilou nodded and gave him a small smile. She was grateful Logan wouldn't be carrying her around like a sack of potatoes anymore.

"I'll take her there." Said Fur-Face finally said something. Usually he interrupted the Professor every chance he got during a meeting, but this time he had been eerily quiet, which concerned Xavier a bit.

"Sounds like a plan Logan. By the by, are you feeling alright? You've been awfully quiet today." Logan just nodded.

"Yep. All good." He said, handing Rilou her crutches and strolling to the door.

"Wait, Logan." The bald man said. "Rilou why not stand outside for a moment? I need to have a word with these two."

"Is Logan in trouble?" She asked, concern for her new friend clear on her face. Xavier gave her a kind smile.

"No child, he's not. At least not this time." He told her, referring to the many times he's had to lecture Logan about his temper, or from breaking things, or from scarring the daylights out of the children, or overusing the Danger room.

"Oh. OK I'll wait outside." And with that, the little thing slipped quietly out into the empty hallway. Well, almost empty. A couple of the school's students were lazing about. One flying planes around with his mind, another juggling pieces of ice and fire, and a girl growing a plant through the floor. One that caught the eye of the small albino was an older girl sitting on a bench by herself.

She wore a simple red tank-top and baggy grey sweat pants. Gloves were on her hands and a daisy was in one of them. Her hair was auburn with a white streak through the front. Her eyes were a beautiful emerald green. A slight frown was portrayed on her face.

Walking silently, Rilou made her way over to the lady, more out of cautiousness that sneakiness. When she stood next to the girl, she spoke.

"I like your flower." The simple remark made the lady's head snap up and stare at the kid.

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't see you." The lady breathed. "You're a quiet one." The tiny one nodded.

"It's a daisy right?" The lady nodded. Rilou looked at the empty part of the bench. "Can I sit there?" Again, she nodded. Taking a seat she thought for a moment. _'When people usually meet, they shake hands and introduce themselves, right?' _Frankly, the kid just wanted to know someone other than Logan. Someone like her maybe. A girl? Or maybe her power was just telling her to cheer her up like a couple encounters before. She wasn't sure. So in slight hesitation, Rilou stuck out her small hand to the emerald eyed lady. "I'm Rilou."

"Hey kid," She said back, ignoring her completely, "What's a child like you doing here?"

At first, Rilou was actually hurt. She had never tried to make a friend, at least not for real anyway, so for her first real try to be ignored was really hurtful to her. So instead of holding her hand up, she wrapped her arms around her small frame and looked at the floor. "Don't ask me." She said honestly. "It wasn't my idea." The lady chuckled a bit, twirling the daisy in her hand.

"Rarely is it a student's first idea to come here." She replied. Rilou huffed a breath.

"I'm not a student." The lady glanced at the girl.

"Then why stay?"

"I'm not going to."

"Where you gonna go?"

"Away."

"By yourself?"

"Yep." The lady now stared at the tinker toy like a creepy piece of art.

"You should stay." She said. "You're safe here." Rilou shook her head.

"I'm not safe anywhere miss."

"Maybe not," The lady said, making Rilou stare at her, "But at least here you'll have people who care for you and try to help. Oh and by the way," She stuck out her hand, "I'm Rouge."

"Complex and filled with a rich history and multiple meanings. Like a daisy, kinda." Rilou broke down the name before taking her gloved hand and shaking it slightly.

"I take that as a compliment, Rilou."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Run Away

**(Xavier's office)**

"So what's up now, doc?" Logan said, leaning against the door Rilou had just used to depart from the room.

"Keep a close eye on the girl." He said simply. "She plans to run away, soon." Logan turned to open the door, but Xavier's voice stopped him. "Relax, Logan. She has not gone yet. She is simply speaking with another student." Logan turned back.

"What are we supposed to do with her?" Ororo finally spoke. "She's no older than seven! She can't go to classes with other students here."

"And what about her running and never stopping?" Logan questioned, looking at Xavier knowingly. If anyone knew about this kid, it would be baldy himself.

"I'm afraid the child is in a lot more danger than she lets on." Was his reply. "That is why she must remain here." Logan nodded, still not liking the answer he received.

"When will she run?" Storm asked, cutting the empty silence.

"I'm not sure." The Professor sighed. "She just mentioned running away soon. So to keep that from happening, Logan I'd like you to keep an eye on her at all times."

"Why me?" The clawed one groaned, already guessing the answer.

"Yeah, why him?" Storm piped in, making Logan growl. "He can't handle a child! He can barely take care of himself!"

"Thanks for the support Ororo." He barked. She ignored him.

"Rilou only trust's Logan as of now. So as of now, he will be the one to watch her. It shouldn't be too hard." He smiled at his two young friends. Storm sat back down, a slight pout on her face. Logan was shaking his head, cursing slightly under his breath about the tyke's lack of good judgment, before he left the room.

"Kid?" He was kinda surprised to not see tiny Mc. Crutches hobbling around the hall. He looked up and down the light hall, but it was quiet, and very empty. He was about to enter the room again when Xavier popped into his head. _'The Garden in the back, Logan.'_ Rolling his eyes, cursing the mutant's power, he stalked off.

**(The Garden)**

"Try these, they just bloomed yesterday." Rouge said to her new tiny friend who was smelling random flowers here and there. Besides getting chased by four bees, two wasps, a frog, and a dog that had made it onto the school property, Rilou liked the garden. She loved flowers. They were like names. Some simple and plain, some weird and colorful, and others just beautiful with no comparison. The garden had a hedge maze that she had sworn never to go in, considering she couldn't walk through a Wal-Mart without getting lost. The garden also held a large fountain. An angel was placed in the center of it, with its arms outstretched to the world. Rouge was picking lowers and handing random one's to Rilou, who was lying in a clover patch sniffing the plants she was given, complementing them all.

"I think that's every type over here." The emerald eyed mutant said, looking over the plants in her hand. She handed the assortment of flowers to her friend. "You take them. I don't want them." Rilou looked at the flowers before smiling a small smile.

"Finally. I keep forgetting how fucking big this garden is!" A familiar voice spat in the air. Rilou turned her head to see Logan stepping closer to the female duo. Rouge laughed.

"Hey Logan. Looking for your pipsqueak?" She gestured to Rilou next to her.

"Yeah. I gotta get her to her new room." He said, glancing at the sight before hm. The two girls had successfully covered themselves in colorful flowers from roses and daisies, to carnations and sun flowers. Rilou's hair was covered from head to toe. Literally. You could barely see any albino left. "And apparently makes sure she cleans the tornado of colors in the hair." He added, before turning on his heel and walking away.

"Whatever." Rouge sighed. "I'll see you later Rilou. You'd better catch up to Logan. He's not gonna slow down for you." The tinker toy nodded, and hobbled off after the clawed man, giving Rouge one last wave. She followed Logan, working her crutches like crazy to keep up with him. They passed hallways and in them, random students. A few psychic type mutants, a few elementals, shape shifter, a teleporter, and a goop-shifter. She was so busy watching them, she didn't notice Logan had stopped and of course had to run right into him. Rilou squeaked and braced for the floor, but Fur-Face grabbed her quickly, and righted her.

"Thanks." Was all he got.

"Sure." He opened the door marked 404, and walked inside. Rilou hobbled after him. The room was big, especially for a tiny thing like Rilou. Her multi-colored eyes scanned the room, opening her mouth a bit in a 'wow' formation. Logan chuckled at this. There was a living area, mainly consisting of a dark brown couch and a matching recliner. A T.V, plasma may she add, was in the corner facing the couch and chair. A glass coffee table centered on a rug centered in front of the couch. A small table was next to the recliner, a small lamp sitting on it behind an ash tray. She shook her head. _'So this isn't just my room then.' _Rilou turned her head to where she had last seen Logan. He had gone into the attached kitchen area and was now searching through the fridge. There was only the kitchen bar separating the two rooms, not a wall, so you could be in the kitchen and still watch the T.V if you wanted to. The kitchen had black table granite for the counters, even the bar. It was pretty for the tiny child, very smooth to the touch. The fridge was platinum colored and had a small hum to its breath. The freezer was on the bottom, so she wouldn't worry about having to climb to get into it, just in case. The island in the middle of the kitchen held the stove. _'Gas powered, like the old days'_, she noted, nodding her head at her thoughts. The lights above her were flat and circular, like glowing pancakes. They were very bright, like it was daylight inside. It was as if they were still out in the nature filled garden. Unlike the soft carpet in the living room, polished wood covered the kitchen floor.

"So what do ya think kid?" Logan asked, knocking Rilou to Earth. She hummed, then looked him in the eyes.

"Well I think it's beautiful." She said. "It was obviously made for more than one person, hence I won't be in this room alone. Someone will be staying here as well, which means I'm intruding, or so I first thought." She took a breath. "I noticed the multiple seats in the living room. The recliner, too big for me to climb on and some scratches are on the arm of the dark brown chair. Can only come from an animal, or in this case someone with a temper. The blanket haphazardly flung on the sofa indicates that someone is too lazy to go to bed, or dosen't like to sleep at all so he/she lays on this couch watching T.V until they finally pass out. Scratches on the rug and couch indicate nightmares or restlessness." She took a bigger breath. "The ashtray probably means a man lives here, not a student. So that rules out the fact that I'm sharing a room with a student. Or a female at that. The kitchen in open so you can see the living room. You can always see the T.V. and there's a secondary remote on the inner bar area, which means someone likes T.V a little too much or uses it to forget his problems." At this point Logan is open mouth gaping at the seven year old child. "And the multiple rooms in the hallway consist most likely of two bed rooms, one bigger than the other, and a bathroom right in between, meaning only two people live in this residence. And finally I know it's you I'm staying with purely for the fact that you went straight to the fridge and rummaged through it like you owed the place, which now I know, you do." She gasped for breath at the end. Logan just stared at her, pretty sure he could hear Xavier laughing at him slightly in his head.

"How the hell did you do that?" He said slowly. Rilou gave him a 'really?' look, but shrugged.

"I look around. I like puzzles, so I try to find one in almost anything I can find."

"You watch Sherlock Holmes don't you?"

"How'd you guess? Shows like that are full of puzzles. Just like all sorts of things around us are."

"Like names." He put his pieces together. Rilou nodded.

"And flowers." She added, holding up the flowers Rouge had given her. "Oh yeah do you have a vase?" Loan looked around, then saw his now empty beer bottle, and handed it to her.

"That work?" Rilou stared at it. After she didn't move for few minutes Logan grunted and made a move for the bottle. "If you don't want it that-"

"No!" She hopped back, out of his reach. "It's perfect." She beamed. "It's just, I've never had friends before and well, and today I got two of them. And they've both given me something I now consider special." She gave him a sheepish look. "You get me?" Logan thought for a second.

"I'm pretty sure I get it." He said, pulling another beer from the fridge. "You should stay here. You'll make more friends that way."

"I can't." She sighed. "It's not safe."

"Safer than out there?" He mused.

"For you guys, yeah." He scoffed.

"I could keep ya safe myself Pipsqueak."

"How?" She barked, red in her pale face. The petals in her hair had started falling out and were now littering the floor.

"I don't die." Was all he said.

**(That night: around 10pm)**

Rilou went back to her room, which she found adorable. The room had been made for her, or so Logan told her. The walls were a pale red, darker than her pink dress, but not hard on the eye. The bed was really big to the tyke that would be sleeping in it, or so they thought, but it would be normal sized for anyone else in their teen years. It had pink sheets and white and pink butterfly patterned pillows. The comforter matched the pillows nicely, it just had bigger patterns. The headboard was polished dark brown wood. It was smaller on the foot of the bed, but just as nice. Engraved in the wood, were animals of all shapes. Rabbits, wolves, giraffes, elephants, lions, eagles, bears, deer, monkeys, alligators, crocodiles, raccoons, and otters were all engraved in a nice line, two by two. In the center, were two creatures she couldn't really put a name too. They were the same, two by two. They looked kinda like badgers. _'Wolverines' _She finally named them. _'Strange creatures. They're related to so much, yet so far from any actual bloodline.'_ She had thought to herself.

There was a dresser across from her bed, next to the window that took up most of the wall. There was a little space for her to sit on the wall next to the window if she wanted too. The dresser was a lighter brown, with more animal etchings. _'Who the heck has all the time to draw all of these realistic etchings?!'_ She thought, pulling on a yellow night dress with a white bow near the neck.

She hobbled over to the small wood desk with matching etches, and opened a drawer to find an empty notebook. She didn't open it. She just put it along with some pens and clothes into a messenger bag she had found in the small closet at the foot of her bed. Then she threw it on the place next to the window, and left the room. She went into the living room to find Logan sitting in the recliner, cigar in one hand, remote in the other, beer on a coaster. Seeing what she needed, she retreated to her room, but glanced back for a split second.

"Goodnight, Logan." She said, not knowing if he could hear her or not. He grunted a response, so that answered that. She glanced to the glass coffee table, and gave her flowers a small smile before closing the door to her room, giving herself a huff. She hobbled to the window, leaving her crutches behind, they'd be a pain to carry, and threw on the bag before opening the window. Giving the nicely made room a once-over, she hopped out into the lily bush, picked a lily, and hobbled off through the garden. Not knowing that as she limped away, a certain psychic Professor was warning a clawed mutant of her departure.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi guys ^^. Yep ch5 is finally up! Sorry it took so long, my migranes are driving me nuts! U.U Anyway remember I own nothing but the story and my oc's. ^^. Reviews make me happy! Tell me what you like and what I need to fix! Thanks and enjoy!**

Chapter 5: Dreams

** (Logan sitting in his chair ^^)**

_'You do realize where the child is right?' _Xavier dicided to bother Logan just as his cigar was lit.

_'In her room?' _He barked back. Xavier sighed.

_'You wish. She used the window as and escape, she's running, sooner than I figured.' _He didn't get any more info to Logan caused by the fact the clawed one had practically sprinted to the kids room and kicked open the door, finding the window clean open. He looked through the open space, and with his enhanced vision saw a speck of albino across the garden, climbing down the gate on the other side, out of the school grounds. Damn. For a hurt tinker toy she could move! Logan hopped out of the window and made a full sprint for the kid, who had now started run-limping down the street. He reached the fence just moments later, and jumped it without pausing. Rilou seemed to hear him hit ground, and turned a bit to see him advancing her. She squeaked in fear, and bolted, forgetting the pain in her knee. She still had a limp, but she was going A LOT faster. She rounded a corner and hopped a small fence into someone's lawn. She ran to the back and shimmied over the gate and ran through the backyard, ignoring the cute terrier that barked and yipped at her. Logan ran around the house the long way, still catching up almost instantly. She couldn't outrun him. He was an adult, and a mutant. She was mini and a mutant. But a hurt one too. So after another block or so, she stopped and turned on her heel to face him.

"Stay back or else!" She warned him. Logan jogged to stop a few feet from her tiny form. "I'm warning you!"

"What are you gonna do to me kid?" He scoffed. "You're a puny tinker toy of a child. Your legs bleeding again. You're crying. Let's go home chick, I'm fucking tired."

"I'm not CRYING!" Rilou shouted at the man, the empty road making it echo a little.

"Really? Wipe your face." He pointed to her cheek. She grumbled, but did, wiping a salty tear from her pale face.

"I didn't know I was crying." She mumbled. She looked at her feet. Why were they trying so hard to keep her at that place? Even the other place hadn't chased her once she got out, or at least she thought so. She stared at the new bruises on her small bare feet. "Why won't you leave me be?" She asked him.

"I-…" Logan stopped in his tracks and thought. Telling her the same thing won't help matters, she'll just argue.

"I don't care about the bald guys' wants or Ms. Ororo's, or even Rouge's. I want your opinion." Rilou said carefully. "Why are you chasing me? Why do you want me to go back to your 'home'?"

Logan blinked at her, obviously in thought. She watched with interest. He was really thinking of an answer. That's what kept her from limping away.

"I don't want you to leave cause, your interesting to me." He finally said. "Never have I argued with a child so much, not even at the school. Your fun, and you make no sense. You're surprising me with new shit all the time, like that observing thing in the house. No way in hell any normal person could do that. Shit I know I can't! I want you to come back cause out there you're probably gonna die alone. Here, at least you'll die with a friend." Rilou stared at him with colorful, wet eyes. "Happy now?" He barked gruffly. He hobbled up to his leg, and wrapped her mummy wrapped arms around it in a hug.

"Thank you." She mumbled.

"For what squirt?"

"Telling me the truth."

**(Next Day At The School)**

Logan had brought Rilou to the mess hall, only to have her hobble off to Rouge, who was sitting with Bobby and Kitty. As soon as Rouge saw her, she was crushed in a gloved hug, receiving a confused look from the two others.

"How are ya Tinker?" Rouge asked, sticking with the nickname she had thought of. A short version of Tinker Toy, for a short kid.

"I'm alright. Had to get my knee re-stitched." Said Tinker admitted.

"We heard a mutant ran away yesterday through the south gate." Bobby said. "That was you?" Rilou nodded. "Nice. I'm Bobby." He held out his hand. Rilou gave him two fingers to shake. "Uhh…I'm not poisonous chick. But whatever!" He shook her fingers. Rilou shook her head.

"I'm Kitty. Nice to meet you, Tinker." She held out her hand as well, Rilou didn't shake it at all. Instead of retorting like Bobby was about ready to do, Shadowcat merely smiled warmly and lowered her hand. Rilou smiled then, and held out her full hand to the wall runner, who took it happily.

"Rilou." She smiled. Bobby scoffed. "Sorry for the test, I wanted to see what kind of people you were."

"Test?" Bobby said dumbly. Rilou nodded. Kitty seemed to purr.

"How'd I do?"

"Well, the test was to take how I shook your hands, or acted towards you. For example, Bobby here questioned my act of using my two fingers, then quickly changed pace, then got jealous when I shook Kitty's hand fully. This infers that Bobby is a very rash person. He can think before he acts, but has a tendency to do the opposite, which can get him into lots of trouble, like this morning, in the Danger room with Logan."

"HOW THE HECK DID YOU KNOW THAT?!" the yell sounded high pitched, earning a few curious glances.

"You have claw marks on your arm from where you've been punished to shut up." Rilou shrugged, pointing. "Not cuts, thanks to your ice powers, which I know you have because you froze your cola."

"Dammit. Not again." He muttered.

"Also I heard Logan muttering about an annoying big mouthed ice boy. So when I saw your drink I put two and two together."

"Wow. So is that your power?" Kitty asked. Rilou shook her head.

"No. I'm not super smart. I just pay attention. I guess it's from not being able to do much else when I was tiny-er." Rilou scratched the back of her head.

"Then what's your power?" Bobby asked. Rilou shot her eyes to look at him.

"You…really wanna see?" She asked. She got three nods.

"Wait!" Kitty hissed. "Tell me about me first." Rilou smiled, not noticing Logan now standing behind her, knowing on a red apple.

"Well you stayed calm and collected, kind of kindhearted when I ignored your hand. Then you didn't rudely remark like Bobby was going to when I held out my hand to you. You are a caring person that puts others before yourself. You think ahead before you do anything especially if the consequences could harm you or another person, even if it would work in the end." Rilou huffed the end.

"Wow." Rouge whistled. "She's good. Bobby laughed.

"Now let's see that power!"

"Power?" Logan spoke up, making all four kids jump about a foot.

"God!"

"Holy Shit!"

"Mother of all that Holy!"

"Jesus!" They turned and shot a glare at the culprit, who was laughing heartedly at the quad of mutants.

"Jerk." The three elder one's mumbled, while the tiny one flipped him off.

"Anyway, you were gonna show us." Bobby said, getting the girls attention.

"Ok but it's hard to do so don't expect much." Rilou mumbled, turning red in the face a bit. They nodded, even Logan, who had finally shut up.

Rilou took a breath. Then turned to Rouge. "Think of an animal. Don't say it. Just think of it, put it in your mind. The part of your mind where you dream." She said. Without asking why, though her curiosity was killing her. Rouge thought long and hard about an animal. Once she got one, she tried mentally pushing it into her dream mind. "Good. Now watch." Rilou poked the side of her friends head, then kissed the finger. A gold dust shimmered around it then, and spiraled around the finger. She twirled her hand and the gold dust got bigger, she used her other hand now, and swayed her hands around, making something with the magical looking floating shimmers of gold sand. Suddenly, she threw the dust upwards, and a rabbit made of gold dust ran around them in the air. It hopped in figure eight's around the three elder kids, then did some circles around Logan.

"That's fucking AWSOME!" Bobby said.

"What is that? It's so cool!" Kitty marveled, watching the gold shimmer of a bunny now hop around another table, startling some kids, others where gawking at it.

"Now watch." Rilou said. She twirled her hand again. "Rouge think of an element and put it in the dream part of your mind, quick." Just as Rouge managed to think of a single element, the Rabbit copied the movements of its creator, jumping around the table and Logan, before hopping high above them, and exploding into millions of tiny gold snowflakes, showering the table of four, and Fur-Face.

"Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust!" Bobby shouted, earning him a group of laughter.

"My turn! Please!" Kitty begged her new friend. Rilou only nodded. Kitty thought hard. An animal…oh! "Got one!" Rilou poked her, then kisses her finger again, causing more gold to appear. She swirled it in her hands again, then instead of throwing it, she slammed it into the floor. A dust cloud of sparkles and gold, swirled into a large tiger with glowing white eyes. It sat in front of Kitty, and licked her face with its sparkling dusty tongue.

"This is so COOL!" She squealed in delight.

"How do you do this?!" Rouge asked, pointing to the purring tiger made of gold, sparkles, and dust.

"I'm a dream-giver." The Tinker Toy mused.


	6. Chapter 6

**HI guys ^^ chapter 6 is now up! Sorry it took a bit longer, I kinda got stuck on how the story should progress. I think I'm getting it though. We finally see a brief look of what Rilou can do! YAY! So disclaimer, I OWN NOTHING. Sadly…. I do own my oc's and the story line. Comment please, tell me what you do or don't like, thanks! ^^ Now enjoy!**

Chapter 6: Wolverines have Nightmare's?

** (A few nights later)**

Staying at the school was nicer than Rilou had thought, though it didn't help her sense of ease one bit. She was still looking into dark halls, or check under her bed before she went to sleep. Logan called her a wuss, she said she was careful.

That night, like just about every other, the tiny girl went on her way from her pretty bed room to the bathroom and back directly down the hall some eight feet. Stepping back out after doing her usual business for the third time that night, she was about to return to her room, when a noise caught her attention. It came from the living room. She stepped closer, seeing Logan's coat flung on a bar chair, his shoes were thrown randomly across the room. His chair was empty, but a still lit cigar was set in the ash tray. A few bottles surrounded the chair, and a couple led her to the couch, where, as she thought, her clawed friend was unconscious and tossing and groaning in his sleep.

Rilou thought about waking him, but she'd probably get yelled at. She could just go back to bed, which was most likely the smart thing to do when it comes to Mr. Grouchy. But she did neither. She watched him. He groaned, then rolled over to face her direction, still out cold.

"I wonder what you dream of." Rilou said to him, knowing he couldn't hear her. She was tempted to see what he was seeing in his realm. But she would have to touch him, and that wouldn't end well if he woke up.

"No…" She jumped back when he spoke, not seeing he was sleep talking.

"Good lord!" She whispered bitterly. Rilou stepped closer to her again and watched his face contort into different emotions.

Pain. Fear. Hate. Sadness. Sarcastic. Brief happiness. Shakes. More pain and sorrow.

As Rilou watched, she felt sorry for him. He'd been through a lot. It was plain to see. Anyone with this much hurt would have to have lost too much for almost anyone else to handle. _'I wonder how many friends he called family have been lost in his time?'_ She knew he was pretty much immortal. At least with the 'hard to kill by rejuvenation' and 'never ageing' thing goes. He had told her about a day or so ago. He had shown her his claws and let her carefully touch them. She had asked if they were always shiny and metal, earning her a laugh, a 'no', and a 'doofuss'. He told her of the lab that made him that way, earning an 'eww' and 'oh my god I bet that hurt!' from the tiny one when he got descriptive. But that's all he told her, nothing else of his past. She couldn't blame him, of course. She hasn't exactly been very open herself.

"No! Please No!" Logan's broken growling snapped her back to reality. She looked at him, he turned again, his claws coming out and stabbing the back of the couch. "Not again!" She suddenly made up her mind. She watched his hand carefully, making sure it wasn't where she couldn't jump away, just in case. She put a hand on either side of Logan's head, ignoring the growling/whining fit her friend was making. She hummed slightly, watching the gold dream dust form from her fingers. Rilou held in a shriek when the claws from his left hang swung up and sliced up her arm. She would have jumped away in pure shock and pain if she hadn't been anchored in to his mind by the dream dust coming through her fingers. She was stuck and had to take it. _'A seven year old shouldn't have to deal with this crap.'_ She growled to herself, attempting to ignore the burn of pain down her right arm. She bent down quietly, still barely humming a calm tune, and kissed Logan's sweaty, clammy forehead. At first, he hissed as if her small gesture had physically burned him, when in truth, he was just entering his dream realm.

She appeared at what seemed to be a foggy, disoriented battle field. The sky was white with grey swirls. The ground was blood red…no…it was blood. She was standing in ankle deep blood. It covered the ground. There were a few falling buildings here and there, a couple tanks from WW1 and bodies of solders littered everywhere. She then heard the screaming, and like any normal person would, ran towards it. Running into the thick musky greenish grey fog, she could only see so much. Dream Running. She could never say she ever enjoyed it. Entering people's dreams to either fix them or knock some sense into the person having the dream. She had been in some creepy, unwanting dreams before, it had caused her to not really look forward to the experience.

Not really watching what she was doing, she smashed clear into something. Nope. Logan. How did she know? Because as soon as she made contact with him, he spun around, flipped her over him and flung her into the ground beore putting his claws to her throat.

"Ow." Rilou muttered.

"A kid?" He finally noticed what he had beat the crap out of. He sheathed his claws and pulled her up. "What the fuck are you doing in a place like this?!" He spat.

"Trying to help." She replied, shaking off some of the floors blood that was now covering her entire back.

"You can't help fight the war kid go home." He turned to leave.

"I can't go back to something I don't have Logan." That made him stop and whip back to her.

"How do you know my name?" He questioned.

"I'm a friend." She said, then went wide eyed in surprise. She never, once, had considered anyone a true friend. "And I'm not here to help the war. I'm here to help you." Rilou gave him a small smile. Logan huffed.

"Help me with what pipsqueak?"

"This," She pointed to the blood filled battlefield, "would be a fantastic start." She looked at his figure. His hair was a bit wilder, more pointed like a badger's ear. His aura screamed 'danger', instead of how she usually sees it as 'piss off and die'. His clothing was a bit different. A white t-shirt, and a brown leather jacket. His jeans were cut up and barely registered as blue anymore. They seemed black they've been sitting in blood so much.

"I don't have time for this squirt, I have a war to finish."

"There is no war." Rilou bitterly muttered, earning a glare from the clawed man.

"Look around you piss ant! Is that not war?"

"Not the war you see, jack ass!" She spat back, hurt by the mean name calling. "There is no world war here! This is a war on your sanity! Stop fighting and start looking!"

"My sanity is fine runt, go away. I don't need you or anyone else! You're a waste of my time. Beat it!" At the last words he barked, Rilou forgot she was in a dream realm, and believed it was the Logan she knew. She sniffled back a choked cry, and gave him a broken glare.

"Fine! I'm sorry I ever called you a friend!" And with that, she used her dream dust to portal herself out of his mind and reappeared in the real world. In the living room, next the couch with the now silently sleeping Logan, who's only current show that nothing changed, was the look of hurt and betrayal on his face, currently much like her own. Without another glance to her Fur-Face, she bolted out the front door and down the hallway, not caring how much noise she made at just about three in the morning. She ran down the stairs, no longer a problem to her healing knee. She ran into random halls, and ran right smack through a doorway, slamming the door in the process. She kept running, aiming for a window similar to her own, when a pair of thin arms wrapped around her, picking her up.

"Easy Rilou, sweetie, calm down." A voice she remembered belonging to Ororo, or Storm as some called her, shushed soothingly. Rilou kicked and screamed for the woman to drop her and go away, but to no prevail. Soon, she went limp in the arms of the tan woman, who sat her down on a plain table in her kitchen area. "What's wrong?"

"Logan's a jerk!" The tiny thing wailed, finally crying her eyes out. Ororo sighed, knowing full well Logan somehow managed to make a very big problem for them and Rilou.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi guys what's up! Chapter 7 is here. Comment please and tell me what you think? Also could you all tell me what your favorite element is? It's for later chapters. ^^ Anyway thanks and please enjoy.**

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Chapter 7: Liar

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Rilou sat outside, in the garden. Her bum was planted on the fountains marble side, while her feet and legs sat calmly in the cool water. Her rainbow eyes were watery over what had taken place the night before. She was heartbroken. Even though it was 'dream Logan' as she called it, it still felt as if that was the truth, and she was truly betrayed by it.

She watched her dream-dust fish swim in the water and nibble on her toe. She had made it to calm herself down. When she ran into Storm's room she had broke down, crying her eyes out and cursing the mutant that lied to her.

The fish made f shimmers and dust swam out of the water and around her, its koi shape making it easier to turn in the air. It twirled around her, and nuzzled her cheek affectionately.

"I know." She mumbled. _'I wonder how much of that his conscious actually meant…' _

(Xavier's office)

"I don't even get what the fuck I did wrong this time?!" Logan snapped at the two people in the room. Xavier sighed in slight irritation, while Ororo glared daggers at the clawed man.

"Logan, she ran into my room crying like she had just been disowned!" The woman yelled. "The first thing she said was your name, along with some cursing."

"Obviously, she must have heard something from or about you that hurt her feelings, Logan." The Professor sighed, leaning his head back a little.

"I didn't say a damn thing!" He spat, pacing a little in aggravation. He really didn't, as far as he could recall.

"I think you should talk to her." Xavier said, giving him a look that let Logan know he wasn't being given an option anyway.

(Outside the Schools gate)

Rilou stood outside the school grounds, leaning against the gate. She watched the treetops. A cardinal sat perched on her nest. Three babies were chirping, crying out for her attention. One baby bird that caught her eye was a black one. It was a little bigger than the two cardinal babies, and was pitch black with an even blacker beak. After a moment of seen hesitation, the mommy bird jumped back to her children. Rilou hummed in amusement. The elder bird cooed the three babies, even the one that was obviously not of her own blood. It wasn't a cardinal. It was a crow. Yet she showed no resent. She nuzzled the larger, discolored youngling that cried with his adopted siblings.

"Treated no differently than the real thing." Rilou mused. "Man, I wish it were that easy for us. For me." She turned on her tiny heel to go back through the gate. She just noticed that she didn't have to climb over it. Her body was small enough to squeeze through in between the bars. As she leaned towards the gate, a loud scream erupted behind her. She whipped back around and saw no one, but the scream was clear, it was leaving her earshot, so it was someone running away from something. Rilou listened to the pitch of the scream.

"Not far away." She concluded, running towards the scream. She ran around a few corners and buildings, following the flow of following shrill screams.

"Oh come now, Dreamgiver, do you really need to run to me every time?" A cold hiss like laugh filled the air when Rilou rounded another corner, skidding her to a stop. She looked around the area she had stopped. A clear street with only two street lights on. _'Wait. Wasn't it daylight a minute ago?!' _Looking to the sky, sure enough, the sun was gone. There were no stars or clouds. Just darkness.

"Cerin." Rilou glowered, glaring at a shadow spot in the light of the street light. There was a ghostly laugh, then a shadow shot at the girl. Not getting a decent view of the shadow, Rilou instinctively jumped out of the way, causing the shadow to miss just barely. It went through the building wall, and reappeared in front of the street light.

"Hello little dreamer." The thick Russian accent flowed deep through the dark air. A figure appeared to the right of the floating shadow. Slick black hair, tied in a ponytail with a red ribbon. A black trench coat, dripping with shadowed nightmares. Insanely pale skin, a crooked, sly, sharp teethed grin. Yellow cat like eyes cast down at the girls tiny form, horrific amusement swimming in the molten color. Sleek black pants caught his slender frame, making him look taller and thinner than he already was. No shirt covered the nightmare's chiseled chest, as well as the pale feet that touched the cold concrete street. The light did wonders to darken the nightmare man before the young Dream Giver.

"Nightmare Man." Rilou said calmly, not fearing the horror lover before her.

"Hello Dream Giver, or should I call you by that…other thing you like to be called now? Rilou or something?" His Russian accent was think as he spoke in a soft hissing tune.

"What do you want?" She ignored his question. Cerin laughed, the shadow his pale white hand flowing through the shadow at his side lazily.

"Why so noble sounding all the sudden?" The nightmare asked sarcastically. "You sound like a protagonist in an all too boring overdramatic motion picture based off Lord of The Rings and Harry Potter." He chuckled to himself. "Too heroic. Especially for something like you Dream Maker."

"I thought you were the antagonist in our little dispute of a story, Nightmare King." Cerin cackled at this.

"Oh take into consideration my old friend," He said smoothly, "I may like the side of the dark, the night, and the horrific. But never once did I say I was the bad guy. As you never admitted to being the hero in our 'story' as you call it." Cerin's shadow he'd been petting began morphing. It became an animal of sorts, if there even was a way to truly put it. It had the head of a Deer, plus the horns of a ram. Its body was that of a cats, possibly a lion if it weren't for its purple-black misty coloring. Its feet were a reptiles, a dragons. Four enormous talons on each foot, and a long sharp higher back claw. It had dark black bone wings sprouted from its back, and a scorpion's tail swaying lazily behind it. It looked at Rilou and screeched in rage. "Like this one? A lot of imagination this one took. But now, its one of my personal favorite nightmares." It screeched, sounding exactly like he scream she had run after moments ago.

"You're twisted."

"I'm honest, dear, learn the difference." He smirked. "Have you learned anything new recently?" Rilou growled, and kissed her fingers, allowing a ball of dream dust to form in her hand like a snowball, then smashed the ball of dream sand into the grey concrete floor. It erupted into a sea of glittering gold beneath the both of them, rolling in waves below. They were literally standing on a sea of gold! Rilou swayed her hands in a little dance, swirling them around in complicated patterns. A patch of the sea in front of her swirled in a vortex, or whirlpool, then shot into the sky forming a tornado.

"Wow, you've put a lot of time into this haven't you?" Cerin whistled as the tornado changed. The top became a head. A sea serpents head. The rest of the tornado became a serpent's neck. It was so large only part of the full body was present. The rest of it was submerged in the dream sand sea. Its long forked tongue slipped out of its mouth and it let out shrill screech.

"How's that Nightmare King?" Rilou spat, huffing a bit at the energy it took.

"Not bad, but I do believe it was a tad overworked."

"Overworked my butt! You're just jealous because mine's prettier!"

What the fuck is that?!" A very familiar voice coughed from behind the tiny albino. Cerin laughed a bit, and gave Logan a little sarcastic wave, while Rilou turned around to be face to face with the clawed man, that hurt her feelings, and healed them too.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Truth for a Liar

Everyone present at the time was silent. Dead silent. Minus the shimmering noise coming from the two dreamt beasts. Logan was staring from Rilou, to Cerin, to the gold monster, to the black monster, and back again. He was trying to fully figure out what was going on. A minute ago he was looking for the kid, in broad freakin daylight! Thanks to Rouge's advice, he had looked for her in the garden, but no luck. He did however see a shimmering, glowing koi fish swimming in midair by the outside of the gate, hovering around a small tree with some birds in it. So naturally, he followed his instincts and took the chance that Rilou had skipped off on them like last time, which makes since considering she was upset. Then to make this even more 'fun', he takes a simple turn around one building, and the sun goes out like a cheap ass light bulb. Even he's never seen that happen! Every light is just gone. Well, apart from the street light the creepy pale dude was standing under. Then the floor just exploded into a gold sea, and that's when he noticed Rilou.

"Rilou, what the fuck is that thing?" The clawed mutant said slowly, jabbing a finger at the serpent.

"Uhh…well-"

"It's a sea serpent. A dream serpent if you want to be technical." Cerin said in his smooth Russian tone. And this," His creature screeched, sounding exactly like a child's shrill scream of horror, "Is a nightmare chimera." Logan finally stood next to the tinker toy albino.

"Who the fuck are you?" He hissed at the pale Russian, who got a look of false hurt on his face.

"What? You mean Rilou hasn't mentioned me? At all?" He laughed then. "Not even the chasing parts? They are my favorites after all." Logan looked down at Rilou, who was glancing up at him with the corners of her eyes.

"This is the guy who's been making ya run?" This man didn't look like much of a threat. When they had to deal with Magneto every now and then, at least he looked like he's had experience. This guy was maybe eighteen to twenty, but no way was he older than that.

"You sound surprised, Logan." Cerin chuckled, petting his nightmare.

"You don't look that upsetting to me." Logan explained.

"Maybe not, but I know what does upset you." The nightmare king said, earning Logan's full attention. Cerin smirked at this. "I know what you hate, what you despise, what hurts your heart, and what you fear most. I know your deepest, darkest nightmares."

"Bullshit."

"Really? So I'm guessing _**Jean**_ rings no bells?" Cerin said in mock confusion. "Not even one?" Logan's eyes went wide and he suddenly became insanely tense.

"How the fuck do you know that?" He spat at the nightmare man.

"Who do you think gives you those nightmares every night? The more pain someone has felt, the easier it is for me to torture them. And I must say you're rather old, and pretty easy to scare despite what you believe. But what makes you so easy, is that you push those that want to help you away, making you a lone wolf, and an easy target." He ended with a cackle, and a glare from Rilou.

"Leave him be, Cerin." Rilou spat, the golden sea serpent roaring a chime in echo. Its roar wasn't scary like one would think. It was a dream creature. Not a nightmare. Its roar sounded like a chime of large bells, similar to the ones on Notre Dame. It was soothing, and seemed to cool some unwanted tension in the dark area.

"Aww, did The Dream King finally make a real friend, or another lost hope of yours? Cerin laughed. Rilou seemed hurt by the words.

"No. I'm a friend." Rilou shot her gaze to Logan when he said that.

"Aw darn." The nightmare man leaned on his creation lazily. "And here I thought your nightmare last night finally got her to run from you. You really are becoming a pain in my side, you know."

"Good."

"Tell me though, Logan, what kind of friend are you to her?" Logan glared at the irritating pale man.

"A dangerous one."

"Ohh dramatic! I love it! You really are interesting, I must say. But my darkness cannot stay much longer what with the…dreadful sunlight outside. So I must say farewell for now."

"Why don't you just stay away, Nightmare King?" Rilou hissed, stomping her foot. The serpent chimed another roar, and lunged at Cerin. His nightmare came to his rescue, and slammed its horns into the side of the dreams head, making it miss and splash into the golden sea below them. The sea swung into a vivid vortex, and shimmered away, returning the ground to the concrete street. Rilou groaned out of exhaustion and pain from the blast the nightmare had caused, and held her head, trying to cure the dizziness. Then the chimera thing sprung at Rilou with an earsplitting blood curtailing scream, but Logan pounced at it first, jumping in between the creepy beast and his tiny friend, and swung his Adamantium claws down on the nightmares head. Not being an idiot, Logan had planned on the not so solid creature to go right through the creature, not harming it at all, and then he'd take the hit for Rilou. But to his surprise, he did cut it. Right in half as a matter of fact. There was no blood, not surprising.

"How did you do that?!" Cerin gawked. "Never, in all my time of existence has a creature as loathsome as one like you, EVER cut or even harmed one of my nightmares!" He continued his ranting and cursing while the chimera slowly dissolved into the air, disappearing entirely.

"Well, that was a lot easier than I thought." Logan huffed, watching the thing dissipate. He suddenly felt something small and warm slip into his hand, and looked down to see Rilou's tiny hand in his own large, rough one. "You ok kid?" He asked her in a softer tone, which took some effort from him.

"Yeah. I'm…fine." She looked down. "Thank you Logan." It came out as a whisper, but the mutant heard it.

"Anytime kid." They both looked over to the still ranting Russian, and Rilou giggled.

"I've never seen him so upset. He's usually all _'I'm greater than anything and everything! I am the best! Gimmie the best! Bow down to my dark power!'_" She mimicked his deep Russian accent, waving her free hand around overdramatically, earning her a snort/laugh from her friend.

"Whoa man what the hell happened?!" A voice said somewhere behind them.

"It was freakin daylight a minute ago!" Another voice chimed in.

"A dark barrier maybe?" A third sounded.

"Guys, just try walking strait!" A fourth stated firmly.

"Storm, that you?" Logan shouted behind him towards the voices.

"Logan?!" All four of them yelled back. There were sounds of footsteps trotting around, then four people bolted through the dark blanket, one certainly being Ororo.

"Rouge!" Rilou cheered, waving a big wave.

"Hey Tinker!" She said, walking up to them. Bobby and Kitty sprang towards the duo too.

"Aww Logan, you two are so cute! She's like your little girl when you hold her hand!" Kitty squee'd. Storm stood next to Logan and looked at the still rampaging man.

"Who is this?"

"Not really sure. It's the thing she's been running from though, I think." He gestured to the tiny albino currently holding his left hand in a death grip.

"…And I don't understand any of this! It's never happened before! What could possibly make it possible to-" Cerin paused, and looked at Logan and Rilou's joined hands, and the smile on her face. "Ah….now I see. Ha ha! Ha ha ha! Now it makes sense! Oh this is epic! How did I not know?!" He laughed like a crazed maniac.

"What are you talking about, Cerin?" Rilou asked genuinely. She hadn't seen him that nuts in a long time. A really long time. And she didn't even know what was going on. It was about Logan being able to harm the nightmare, but she didn't see why it would cause this kind of reaction from the Nightmare King.

"And you don't even know! Oh what a fantastic new chapter to our long novel of fun eh, Dream King?! Well, I need to go now, but don't be disheartened, I'll be back, closer and sooner than any of you think!" With that last hiss of a promise, Cerin bowed, vanishing in an eruption of darkness and howls of terror.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Nightmares Lie

It had been a few days since the incident with the Nightmare King. Everyone was on edge, even the Professor, though he didn't show it. Cerin's promise even cut to the steel bones of Logan, who was currently watching the runt toss in her own dreams. Who knew the Dream mutant could have her own nightmares. He thought about waking her up, but thought better of it and left her swimming around her bed. He made his way to the kitchen area, taking a look at the digital clocks glowing green numbers as he went to the fridge. 3:45a.m. Jeeze.

That nightmare bastard has been keeping him up for almost five days and nights full on. Turns out the bastard can get into his dreams and make his dreams into nightmares. He even tries to chat with him, but Logan's not much of a chatter. He would occasionally try to punch or slash Cerin, but he would just evaporate and appear somewhere else, unharmed. It pissed the clawed mutant off more than it should. Maybe it was because that nightmare prick annoyed him with his cocky voice, or rude gestures, or…or…maybe it was because of Rilou. He's known the kid a couple weeks now. She hasn't tried to run twice. She'd forgiven him for whatever he did to her a few nights ago. They had grown pretty close, well as close as a clawed mutant and a tiny dream kid can get. He liked having the kid around, much to his own amusement. He was sure Xavier got a kick out of it too. The kid trusted him above anyone else, she had told him this a night ago.

He opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle, popping off the cap with his nail. Taking a sip, he also recalled the times he noticed Rilou in his dreams, or Nightmares with Cerin. She was in the background somewhere in them every time, watching the conversation they were having. One time she was standing next to him silently the whole time, and had held Logan's hand when the nightmare had said something that really hurt him, and had given him a simple smile. But nothing more, not that he needed more. The only thing that cheered Logan up more was the few times Rilou flipped Cerin off in his dream. Turns out he doesn't like that very much.

There was a shrill scream from Rilou suddenly, and without hesitation, Logan dropped his drink, it shattering on the floor, and sprinted to the child's room. What he saw was a nightmare. Literally. Above Rilou, standing above her, was the Chimera nightmare from the night we first met Cerin. But this one had a shadowy 2 on its back. Logan guessed that meant it was a copy. It was roaring that blood curdling human scream, but the shrill cry was he had heard was Rilou's. She was crying out in her sleep, crying watery tears and yelling for help. The chimera cried again, something else forming above the little girl. It was a blur, but held the shape of a person. When Rilou screeched _'NO!'_ Logan had to do something. He did exactly what he did the first time he dealt with the damn thing. He saved Rilou. Taking out his claws, he slashed the things head clean off, then stabbed the body over and over, and didn't stop till it was gone completely from his sight. Rilou screamed, and shot up in a sitting position.

"Logan!" She was wide eyed, and moving her head around the room frantically, which made Logan realize she hasn't noticed him in the room yet. Rilou noticed someone was watching her and quickly locked gazes with Fur-Face, her best friend. She stared at him with puffy red eyes for a long time, sniffling, trying not to cry. What she had just seen, it wasn't real. For the first time, it wasn't real. He was there. He was still there. She blinked. Nope, still there.

"Kid." His voice startled her. It was laced with worry, which was new for him to her. "You ok?"

"…Logan!" She cried out, shooting up and springing from across the bed, into his chest, wrapping her arms around his neck, and she began to sob uncontrollably. She repeated his name over and over while she cried. What Logan didn't know, was that she was beyond happy at the moment. He was here. Cerin lied. Logan was still here. The nightmare was a lie. For the first time, the nightmare lied.

Wrapping a strong arm around the sobbing mess, Logan made his way out f the room, into the hall, to the kitchen, flipping on the lights as he did so. He set Rilou down on the counter and made a move to leave her there to clean the mess, but she wouldn't let go of him. She just clung to him tighter. He gave a few gentle-ish tugs, but eventually Rilou ended up hopping up and wounding around him, till she was on his back. She linked her arms around his neck again, and wrapped her legs around his torso as much as she could, which wasn't much considering her size. He sighed, and let her dangle on his back while he cleaned the mess he made with his still full bottle earlier. Cutting himself a few times with the broken glass, he finally got it cleaned, and threw the stained towel in the trash. Logan looked to the kid to see her staring at him with red, puffy, watery, yet shimmering rainbow-like eyes.

"You ok kid?" Logan asked, getting a soft nod, and a tightened grip around his neck. "How 'bout a walk? I'm obviously not getting any sleep tonight?" A nod was given in reply, but she made no move except crawling up his back a bit like a koala so she her whole head was up to his left, a whole arm and shoulder draped over his shoulder. She really looked like a baby koala. It was cute! "Or I'll walk and you tag along for the ride." He huffed, walking out the door with the mini koala child strapped to his back.

They walked through the dark halls silently, not wanting to wake the students. Logan didn't really care about waking up the kids, but he didn't want another long ass lecture from Xavier. Rilou was quiet the whole time, much to Logan's surprise. She wasn't crying anymore, but her white knuckle grip around his neck hadn't loosened at all. She was squeezing herself against him as far as she could. To Logan, it was as if she was afraid she was going to vanish into thin air if she let go. To her, it was the opposite.

They made their way to the main corridor area, and crossed over to the cafeteria. Logan used his middle claw to cut the lock to the kitchen.

"Our secret, right kid?" Rilou nodded, getting a smirk out of Logan. He pushed open the tight silver door, and flipped on the kitchen light. To Rilou, it looked more like a lab than a kitchen. All the stuff in here was beyond modern. Platinum silver things were all over the place. They passed what looked like a stove, an enormous walk in fridge, and a freezer. Logan passed through to the back door, and popped the lock. Walking out the door, they ended up outside, in the forest next to the garden. He kept walking, ignoring the animals they passed as he walked. A herd of deer gave them strange looks, an owl or two hooted at them. A field mouse ran passed Logan's foot a couple times, and a bear was walking in the same direction as them.

"Logan?" Rilou's voice finally spoke up, though it was almost a whisper.

"About time you say something." He replied. "What's up kid?"

"Where are we going? We're not on the grounds anymore are we?" She looked over at the brown bear. It looked like a black bear in the darkness of the night, but you could faintly see the difference if you looked close enough. It gave a nod to them, and a little growl. Not a threat, it was more of a hello to the two mutants.

"You're right kid. We aren't on the grounds anymore. Don't know why you'd care anyway. I mean you never have before. As for the other question, you'll see." He turned his head to face Rilou, and gave her a half smirk.

The bear got really close to them, and after a minute or two was walking side by side with them.

"Friend of yours?" Rilou asked him. The bear grunted a response, even though the question was directed to Logan.

"I guess. It shows up when I come out here alone a lot. It never leaves me alone." Too prove his pals point, the bear nudged himself against Logan, giving him a playful shove. Getting a ridiculous idea, Logan looped an arm behind him, and pulled Rilou off of him.

"NO!" She screeched, wrapping her arms back around him.

"Do you trust me?" He asked. She looked up at him with watery eyes again. She nodded and loosened her grip. He placed her on the large bears back near his neck so she was riding it like the bear was a pony. The bear didn't seem to mind, in fact it looked as if it was smiling at the duo. Its eyes glistened like shimmering stars in the black night. Logan lowered his hand that had placed her there, but Rilou grabbed it in a grip that would crush a normal persons bones.

"Please…" She whimpered, making Logan freeze. "Please don't leave."

"I ain't going anywhere kid." He reassured her. God he sounded so unlike himself right now, Xavier would so get a laugh out of this.

"Promise?" She held out her tiny little finger to him, which he took into his rough one.

"Yeah. Promise." He kept walking, the bear very close to his side, and the little girl he had come to enjoy being friends with, even closer to his heart than his side.

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**Hi guys! Wow this one took a while. Sorry. I haven't been in a writing mood in a while. Kinda depressed really. One of my favorite idols, Leonard Nimoy, just passed on a while ago. So I'm sorry for taking so long. As usual please comment and review on how I'm doing. Yes I know this chapter was a little out of character for Logan, but it was nessisary.**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Dream Lit Sky

Logan pushed away some low hanging branches for the Bear and its Rilou back pack to get through the narrow trail way, never letting go of Rilou's tiny hand. They walked up a steeper hill, the bear grunting a bit when Rilou would almost slip off. But Logan would right her again. A small smile was finally grazing her small mouth. His fur was soft, not bristly like she thought it would be. Her rainbow kaleidoscope like eyes literally glowed in the dark, wandering around to the surrounding trees and rocks. Not far away, a stream could be heard, slowly and calmly running parallel to the trio.

"I'm gonna name him Carrot." Rilou said calmly, bending down to kiss the bears head. The bear, now named Carrot, growled in slight approval. Logan gave her a 'you're kidding' look.

"Why? Because 'Carrot' means bear in some language? Or pony?" Rilou laughed halfheartedly.

"Not at all. I just felt like calling him Carrot." She mused.

"Oh."

"Logan?" Rilou's eyes went to her friend.

"Yeah?"

"Where are we going? The sun will be coming up soon." She looked up to the sky to see a light purple tint in the sky.

"We're almost there." Logan said. There, happened to be a small cliff edge that showed the whole forest. You could see the school clearly from that high spot. The horizon was in plain view, and the forest looked like tall grass from this bird's eye view.

"Wow!" Rilou gasped, nearly falling off Carrot, who was looking up at the still starry sky. "This is pretty. Like really pretty!" She said happily. Logan smiled at her.

"I like to come up here when I wanna be alone. It calms me down." She sent him a beaming smile. She slid off Carrot and sat next to Logan's shoe, hugging his leg. Logan sat next to her a minute later, so Rilou wound her tiny arms around his upper arm instead. The bear lay to the right of them, his head resting calmly on his large palms.

Smiling a bit, Rilou blew out a puff of gold dream dust, forming what became a bear cub. It ran around the air and hopped onto Carrot's back. It made a little 'Maow' noise, and jumped onto the bigger bear's head. Carrot shook his head, knocking the shimmering gold bear off onto Carrot's large paws. While the animals played with each other, the mutants sat calmly next to the cliff's edge, watching the dimly lit yet starry sky.

"Hey tiny." Logan hummed after a moment, making Rilou look up at him curiously.

"Yes Fur-Face?" He gave her a snide look at the nickname, but continued the conversation.

"How does your power…work exactly?" He continued to look at her, using his heightened sight sense to see her. Rilou's face was still and strait, then almost immediately, she yawned and gave a shrug.

"It's not really a secret or anything. You could have asked earlier if you were curious you know." He snorted at her reply. "Basically I can take dreams people have, including my own, and make them real."

"Like when you took the dream bunny Rouge's brain generated?" He asked, thinking back to when she had first shown her unique power.

"From her dreams, yes. No one part of the brain "generates" dreams. Dreams are best viewed as a whole brain phenomenon - or at least a "whole cerebral cortex" phenomenon." Rilou huffed, confusing Logan significantly. "…Yes Logan I made the bunny with her dreams." She said in a 'you're a simpleton' tone. "It takes energy to make things. The more complex takes more energy. Like the serpent took a lot out of me. I usually don't make things that big."

"It didn't make a noise like that creature the Nightmare guy had."

"Mine's made of dreams. It's not supposed to scare you." Logan thought back to the serpent and the chimera. The chimera's roar sent chills through him, and put him on edge. But her serpent's bell chime like roars calmed him and made him feel at ease.

"Cerin makes his nightmares really complex, that's why they're so good at doing their job."

"Job?"

"Scare the living crap out of people. He lives to bring darkness and terror to the world. That's what he was made to do." She shuffled closer to the bigger mutant, tightening her grip on his arm a little. Carrot and the dream bear cub were now lying next to them. The cub on Carrot's large head, chewing on the larger ones ear.

"And you were born to bring light and joy to people, to stop him, right?" Logan laughed jokingly. Rilou chuckled.

"Born? Theirs an idea." She mused. Logan gave her a look. "The suns coming up." She used her free hand to point to the horizon. Sure enough, a sun was beginning to show its face. The sky was now a vivid purple and orange color. The stars were dimming a bit. Still wanting the stars out, Rilou drew a ball of dream dust from her palm, and lazily tossed it into the sky, where it became a small flock of birds. They flew up into the sky, and exploded into extremely bright stars, covering the entire sky.

"Cool." She heard from her clawed friend. They stayed like that for another hour at the least, the sun coming almost fully over the horizon. Once and a while, Logan would make a sarcastic comment, or Rilou would ask a ridiculous question, but besides that, there was a friendly silence between the two. Carrot had dozed off, the dream cub had dissipated over twenty minutes ago.

"Hey Logan?" Rilou nudged her friend who had been really quiet for a good ten minutes strait. He blinked a few times, having nodded off, and looked around.

"I'm up, I'm up. What's up?" He yawned. Rilou giggled.

"I think we should go back. It's dawn." She swung herself up into a standing position. She was short enough to the point where, when standing, she just barley came up to the top of his head when he sat there. He smirked as he noticed this and stood as well, towering over her. Rilou went to Carrot and pat his head. He woke up with a loud yawn and a sneeze. His light brown fur seemed to glisten a bit in the dawn light. He looked at Rilou and gave her a happy growl. She kissed his nose.

"We're going back to the school Carrot. You gonna walk back with us? You can stay here and nap if you want." Even though the bear couldn't understand English like one might in a cartoon, it seemed to understand that his friends were leaving. He gave a snort, and stood on his four paws, moving to the trail they had used earlier. Rilou walked to Logan and took his hand as they walked in the same direction. "Carrots a cool bear." Logan laughed a bit, still not able to think of the bear as Carrot with a straight face.

"Aww how cute. When's the adoption?" A very familiar hiss seeped through the wind. Logan glared, Rilou rolled her eyes.

"Go away Cerin." She hissed. There was a chilling laugh, then he appeared before them in a void of shadows and shrill cries.

"Aww…now that's just rude." His Russian accent smooth with the hiss tone he held. His pale skin was about the color as the moon had been earlier, a hand on his hip while the other held a glass of what smelt like blood. "Nice to see you again, Logan. I must say you need t quit destroying my creations, it hurts my feeling."

"Which feeling would that be, Nightmare King?" Rilou ground out.

"I dunno. Just a feeling." He shrugged.

"You make up so much nonsense it gives me a headache." Logan mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"It's a hobby." Cerin chuckled. "Now, Dream King, if I may have a word, we should really turn the page in our story. This is becoming boring on my end."

"I'm supposed to care about your entertainment?" Rilou said with venom in her words.

"I want to play a simple game with you two. See? I'm even letting your new buddy play on your team." He hid a smirk behind a false innocent smile.

"This is gonna be bad." She sighed, then looked up at Logan.

"What's the game?" He barked at the Russian nightmare man, who grinned, showing very sharp teeth. Not just his canines, but all of them. It was a feature Logan had failed to see their first meet.

"A mix of hide-and-seek, and I spy." He mused, crossing his arms and leaning against a tree. Rilou noticed Carrot was gone. He must have one ahead. "I've hidden things around different places around the world. Simple enough, I'll take you a place where I've hidden something, and you'll have a certain amount of time to…find it. Once you do or when the time runs out…I'll take you to the next place. Once the game is over, we can flip another page, and begin a new chapter. Simple, yes?" He blew on his nails, puffing out a stream of shadow dust, it was more see through than it was the last time Logan had seen it last night. "Cursed sunlight…" Cerin muttered.

"Sounds too simple for a snake like you Cerin." Rilou spat. "What's the catch?"

"No true catch. The only rule is the time limit. Oh and you can't split up at all times. Gotta stick with your travel buddy, don't you?" He waved his finger in a 'no, no' gesture.

"And if we say no?" Logan asked, purely irritated with this man. He was an ass. And way too full of himself. Cerin began laughing.

"Oh I don't think you want me to do that, Guardian boy." He chuckled. "Trust me, you're going to wanna find these things I've hidden let me assure you."

"Guardian?" Rilou questioned the name calling. "Explain Cerin."

"Nu-uh little King. That's for another time. Now, are we going to play, or should I cut the game out and not give you a chance to save-find, the things I've hidden?"

"Save?!" Rilou gasped. "What did you do?"

"You'll see. Can we play?" Logan looked between the two, and couldn't help but think he was going to regret this.

"Alright. We'll play your fucking game."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Game

"Usually the places he makes me go are a lot, creepier." Rilou muttered through chattering teeth. Apparently, Cerin hid the first thing in the fucking mountains. The Himalayan Mountains, to be more accurate. Rilou was irritated at his prickness, while Logan was just full blown pissed off in general. The guy was as cocky as he was annoying. And the damn bastard knew it! "I bit my tongue." Rilou mumbled out, getting Logan's attention. He was used to cold weather like this, so it didn't affect him much. He forgot Rilou was in a nightgown. He picked her up and just carried her through the snow. It was sunny out, thank God, so they could see where they were going. It was also really clear outside, so no blizzards for the time being. Time. They had four hours to find this item. To save it, as Cerin accidentally, yet purposely, slipped out of his big mouth. Yet they had no idea what they were looking for besides the 'clue' the Nightmare Man had given them. 'It can do what you're walking on' he had said. Some help he is.

"Any ideas? You're the puzzle lover." Logan grunted, hopping off a ledge and landing about ten feet down.

"Shut up. It would be easier if I knew what we were looking for. He never makes any sense. All the time 'Let's play!' or some other form of riddle me this crap! And what was with the Guardian thing? Why'd he call you that? He's such a useless prick! I never get why I had to be handed the job of dealing with that useless piece of trash! I wish I could just pound his empty skull in!" She was grumbling to herself now, basically ignoring the cold and the man carrying her.

"Well, it's something to do with snow, right? Or ice?" Logan tried getting her to focus, as much as he wanted to curse the dark loving bastard too, they were running out of time. Four hours was not long, no matter how you looked at it.

"I guess. Or a mountain but that would be too obvious. It can do what we're walking on. I have no clue." She looked around them for anything out of place. Nothing. Just a bright, sunshine filled, snowy mountain day. A herd of mountain goats were hopping around the steeper part of the mountain around them, using their hooves to hold themselves high on the incredibly steep incline. "I miss Carrot." Rilou moaned, burying her head in Logan's shoulder.

"His fur would be helpful for you with all this fucking cold, bub." He mumbled, still watching the goats. There were multiple goats. Maybe fifteen or so. Most of them were white with a small hint of sandy color fur. But five of them were…black. The black ones were bigger, and they were scattered randomly through the herd. But what made him most uneasy was that they weren't climbing the steep incline, or eating whatever the other goats were. They were staring at the mutant duo. With beady glowing white eyes that matched the snow they were walking on. It appeared as though they were statues they were so damn still. Like vultures watching a dying calf, waiting for it to die.

"Logan!" Rilou yelled out. Logan swiveled his head down to glare at the tiny thing that yelled in his ear.

"What the fuck?"

"I called your name like twenty freakin times Fur-Face!" She hissed, hopping out of his arms and into the snow. It came up to her knees due to her size. "I think I got it." She didn't seem happy about it, which wasn't a good sign to the clawed one.

"Something tells me I ain't gonna like this." She gave a snort.

"No you're not. Especially if I'm right. We have exactly three hours and twelve minutes to go."

"Where the fuck did that hour go!" He hissed. "We had four just a moment ago."

"Time flies when you're playing games. Especially Cerin's games." Rilou shrugged. "Nightmare bastard." She added venomously.

"Fucking perfect." Logan groaned. His head hurt from all this information and thinking. "Did you figure it out or not, kid?" He ground out. The dream girl gave him a sympathetic look.

"Well, I was thinking." Rilou started, walking through the snow as she spoke, Logan right next to her. Her albino hair matched the pure white snow, camouflaging perfectly. "Cerin said we should play the game to 'save' the things we have to find, right?" Logan nodded. "He also mentioned that if we weren't to play the game, he would dispose of these things to save him the trouble of putting them back where they belong. And he wanted to play so bad he also mentioned we wouldn't want to skip out on finding these things."

"So that would imply that whatever the fuck these are, they must mean something to the both of us, right." Logan looked down at Rilou for confirmation on his thought. She nodded. Rilou noticed a few rocks a little ways ahead of them. Not covered in snow, yet it was inclined higher than they were. And she was knee deep in it. That was weird.

"Exactly Fur-Face." She said, still walking towards the snow free rocks. "We know that it has to be an item that means something to not only you or me, but the both of us. Now as for his hint, it can do what you're walking on, I think the mountain is too obvious."

"The snow." Logan hummed. Rilou nodded again.

"Simple, plain, yet difficult. If we're wrong about this one detail, we're screwed." She said plainly. They reached the rocks, and the girl touched one. "It's warm."

"Bullshit." Logan said, reaching out and pressing his hand to it as well. It was warm. Too warm. "A volcano?"

"In the Himalayan Mountains? I don't think so." She shook her head, looking at the rocks. Light steam was coming from them. It rose above the rocks, then the steam froze in the air and fell to the rocks again. It did this over and over. "It's a clue Cerin left us."

"How nice of him." Logan spat.

"It's not snow exactly. It's…ICE! Oh my God! I got it!" Rilou went into a panic state. Running in circles, babbling a language Logan didn't understand. After a minute or two of calling her name to deaf ears, he grabbed the collar of her pale pink nightgown, yanking her up so she was dangling in front of his face eye to eye.

"Oi! Take a breath kid!" He snapped. She took a long, loud breath, puffing out her cheeks, then blew it all out.

"We've gotta save Bobby!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Tunnel Trouble

"I should have known he'd resort to kidnapping for his amusement." Rilou spat as she ran through the icy tunnels they had found themselves in moments ago. They had been standing near the hot rocks when the ground had given way, leaving them collapsed in an underground ice tunnel. Rilou shouted profanities to the sky while Logan tried to clear out his headache. A large chunk of the hot rock had whacked him on the head on his way down. Now they were running through the icy tunnels, with not a clue as to where they were going. But they did understand they needed to hurry. Saving Bobby in an hour and half, seemed almost impossible at the moment.

"We've already been in here." Logan grunted, seeing the claw mark he'd put into the wall earlier.

"Great! Fantastic!" Rilou threw her tiny arms up in frustration. Logan looked at the three tunnels in front of them. One, on the far left, they had gone through at least three times. Past there, was another two tunnels, each of those had two as well. One of each of the sets of two tunnels looped back to this room from somewhere behind them. Then the middle one. He could smell their scent through the slimmer middle tunnel, but it was faint. They had only been through that tunnel once. It led to a circular small dome room. But that was it. It was a dead end. So the middle one is out. Logan unleashed his claws and marked the useless tunnel with a large X in the wall.

"That way's out. Only a dead end. Left one has a tunnel with two tunnels through each side. One of each loops around." He told the tiny one giving him a curious look.

"I remember another dead end in the right tunnel, but there were like four other choices. We've gone through there twice I think." Rilou said, pointing at the claw marks on the right tunnels wall. Two slashes. If they were going to make any progress, they needed to stop and think. They weren't going to get anywhere running in freaking circles. "Logan, how many dead ends or loops have we gone through?"

"Uhh…" He looked at each tunnel. The center tunnel itself was a dead end. One. The two tunnels in the left, led to two more, each having one dead end. Three. The far right tunnels were more complex. It had four tunnels past the one they were looking at. One was a clear dead end. So that made four. Then two of the other three they haven't ventured through. The one they have looped around. Five. "Five of them." Rilou nodded, then puffed out a stream of the gold dream dust. It warped itself in her palm, becoming what looked like a rubix cube. A single colored rubix cube. "I don't think playing with your block of dust is being very helpful kid." Logan nearly growled. Rilou ignored him, and toyed with her dream dust cube. She twirled the sides, and put her fingers around some blocks.

"I guess that could make sense." She spoke to herself.

"What does?" Rilou looked up at him, then back down at her cube.

"The way out is the tunnel on the right. Through there, to the middle tunnel through that, and then it will loop into ten other tunnels. The far left from there is the way to the exit."

"Finally-"

"But Bobby is inside the tunnel to our left." She nodded towards the left tunnel.

"Fucking fantastic." He ground out. "How did you figure that?"

"This place is set up like a rubix cube. It's much simpler than it seems. There are multiple ways to figure it out, but the brain makes it look much too complex, like these tunnels. There are five tunnels that are dead ends, no matter whether it's a plain dead end or a loop. So that means tunnel two and three, the middle and right, are out."

"But the right one has like ten other choices we haven't been through."

"Too simple. We have an hour to find Bobby. Cerin may be a complete ass, and a cocky jerk, and completely useless when it comes to crap that actually matters, but he's fair. He wouldn't put Bobby in there, knowing we would have pretty much no chance to get to him in time. That would be too boring to him. He wants a good show, so he's gonna be fair. So the right tunnel, as I said, is out."

"Sounds like we're at least finally gonna move." As they jogged into the left tunnel, Rilou shivered. But it wasn't because she was cold.

"Hey Logan, do you feel…watched?"

**(Few Moments Later)**

"That tunnel was a lot longer than I thought." The clawed mutant huffed as the duo stopped in front of the second set of the left tunnel.

"Probably because we weren't really paying attention before." Rilou mumbled in reply, still fumbling with her block of dust.

"I marked out the left one. So we go right." Logan said, jogging ahead. Rilou ran to catch up.

"Go left at the next set of tunnels!"

"Got it!" He did as she suggested and ran into the left tunnel. Rilou dissipated the cube of dream dust, and sprinted to catch up to her temper mental buddy. She was in the second left tunnel when she finally caught up.

"After here we should run into one more set of five tunnels."

"And which one do we go through genius?" Rilou smirked up at him as they exited the tunnel into the next room of five new tunnels.

"The obvious one of course." The tunnels were a lot different than the others from earlier. One was dark blue and seemed to dip steeply downwards. The further down you looked, the darker it got. The icy walls seemed thicker in this tunnel and a fog could be seen coming from the depths of this tunnel. The second tunnel, next to the dark blue one, was a boarded up tunnel with a big red X on it. The third one was another icy tunnel with a sea green tint to the ice. It seemed to gradually incline upwards, unlike the first one. Sharp icicles were hanging throughout the tunnel, shaking slightly like they would collapse at any given time. The fourth tunnel was different plainly by the fact that it was not an ice tunnel. Or really a tunnel. It was a rocky gap. You could take a few steps inside and hit a solid rock wall. A dead end. The last tunnel was exactly like the tunnel they had just come out off. White with a simple blue tint.

"Obvious no's are tunnel four and five." Logan said triumphantly. Rilou nodded.

"Three's out." Rilou stated. "The icicles are going to give way. That rules it out."

"How much time is left?" Logan asked, looking between the two remaining choices. Rilou checked herself.

"Half an hour." These four hours just vanished when they got in here.

"Ok. C'mon." Logan discarded the dark blue tunnel and used his claws to demolish the boards covering the second tunnel. Behind it was blackness. Just a walk of black. "Obvious I think yes, eh kid?" He walked into the blackness, Rilou trotting smugly right behind. She loved it when she was right. Usually. They ran through the darkness blindly. Obviously that's all they could do, they couldn't see a centimeter in front of themselves.

"Well this sucks."

"No shit kid." Logan spat back. "I don't suppose you could make a flashlight out of that dust could you?" As he finished those last words, Rilou heard him yelp, followed by a crash. She stopped and felt the air in front of her, but no Logan was present.

"Logan?" She called out. "Logan you there?"

"Fuck that hurt." She heard him groan somewhere ahead of her. She giggled, and formed a small gold dream dust flashlight. The beam it gave was also made of the dream dust and bright enough to see a good ten feet in the darkness. The beam landed on Logan who was just getting off a lying position. Turns out he tripped on a rock the size of his boot. Rilou chuckled at her friend's clumsiness. "Couldn't make that thing a minute ago?" He asked, sarcasm dripping in each word. She just giggled again. Using the beam, they looked around. They were in a large dome. An icy dome. Light snow was on the ground, which probably made Logan's trip a little less painful. Walking with a little crunch noise in their steps, they made their way through the dome, looking everywhere inside it.

"Bobby should be here. This has to be it." Rilou said, more to herself than Logan.

"How much time is left?"

"Twenty minutes."

"God dammit!" Time really just wasn't with them today. "Bobby you there?!" He yelled out, tired of playing the 'I spy' version of this fucking game.

"Bobby? Bobby you can come out if your there!" Rilou joined in. She knew he was down here. He had to be. Just as Rilou turned her back from where she was to face Logan, something roughly grabbed her shoulder, making her scream. Logan, not waiting for an explanation, jumped the thing that grabbed his friend, unsheathed his claws, and pinned it to the cold ground. Rilou shot her flashlight's beam at the culprit, then sighed in relief. "Bobby. You scared me to death."

"Hi Tinker Toy. You have no idea how freaking happy I am to see you guys." Bobby glanced at the shiny claws still at his throat. "Umm…do you think I can keep my head on my shoulders Logan? Please?" Logan smirked, and stood, helping the ice mutant up at the same time. "Thank you for leaving me in one piece." He said half-sarcastically. "Wanna explain what's going on?"

"We're playing a really annoying game, Logan has a headache, I'm irritated and tired, we just saved your ice, and now we need to leave." Rilou said in a very rushed voice.

"Why? We found Bobby. We won the round right?"

"We haven't 'saved' him yet." She whined back, pointing at something her dream dust flashlight was beaming on. It was a mountain goat. A black one. With beaming white eyes. "I knew I should have expected this. Crap." The other four black mountain goats came up behind that one. "Logan can you smell them?"

"The dead corpse smell? I'm sure anything can." Logan said, scrunching his nose a little as he did so.

"Good." Rilou said, taking Bobby's hand. "Tear em up!" The flashlight vanished, and she ran across the dome, pulling the ice boy along until she whacked into a wall. "Son of a biscuit cracker case! That hurt."

"What happened? Why's we stop?" Bobby asked, looking around even though he couldn't see a thing.

"I hit my head on the wall." Rilou muttered. "Never mind that though, keep an ear out for any demons or Logan."

Logan, meanwhile, was listening for any kind of movement from the five demon mountain goats. Lucky for him, he wasn't completely clueless to where they were. Their eyes glowed in the darkness. He watched them blink. Once. Twice. Three times. His claws slowly came out and he took a slow breath, standing tense and at the ready. They all blinked again. And again. Then, the goats closed their eyes completely, leaving Logan in complete blackness.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Blind Light

Logan tried to follow their movements with his sense of smell and hearing, but there was nothing coming from the nightmare mountain goats anymore. Their decaying corpse smell was gone, leaving his sense of smell nothing to track except Rilou and Bobby who were doing something near the dome's wall behind him. Their hooves made no noise on the snow or ice. He could hear nothing except his own breathing. Suddenly, one of them rammed him from his left, effectively knocking him over, he swiped out at it, knocking its body slightly. Not a fatal blow, but enough to make it screech in pain. He repositioned himself upright, right as another kicked his chest with its back hooves, breaking two ribs and knocking him into another mountain goat demon's horns that stabbed his back. He groaned, and stabbed the one in his back right through the head. It screeched in agony, and threw him a few feet away. Logan landed on his feet, his regeneration already doing its job on his broken bones and back.

"You know some light right now would be fucking marvelous, Midget!" He yelled out in aggravation, swiping out at one that he just happened to hit out of luck. It was rearing up to kick him with its front hooves, but Logan stopped it by slashing its leg clean off. Its leg dissipated, but the nightmare itself was still alive.

"Working on it!" Rilou yelled back, putting a ball of her dream sand into a crack in the dome she had found by running full sprint into it. If she could find a few more cracks, this plan of hers could work. Flailing her arms, she slapped Bobby, who yelped in surprised. Finding his hand, she dragged him around the dome, staying away from the current fighting area, and finding another wall with her face. "Look for a crack in the ice wall." She told him, feeling around the walls body. Bobby gave her general direction a look she couldn't see.

"How? I can't see anything!" She sighed.

"Allow me to rephrase that. Feel the wall for a freaking crack. I have an idea."

"Oh. That, I can do."

Currently, while the two smaller mutants played Patty-Cake with the wall, Logan was attempting to fight and dodge the huge demon nightmares trying to play pinball with him. And they were doing a pretty good job. Until Logan grabbed one's horn and cut its head off in irritation. He threw the dissipating head behind him, and smirked when three sets of white eyes appeared again. Now he got it. They were planning. They showed themselves when they weren't going to attack. Only when they were watching, and planning. They fight blind, just like he has too. That's why Rilou had shut off her dream flashlight. She knew this already. She wasn't giving him a disadvantage, it was a helpful tip. Catching them off guard, Logan rushed at one that was blinking, successfully running his claws right through its body. He slashed horizontally out of its body, cutting it clean in half. It screeched a blood curdling cry, and dissipated in a puff of smoke and black dust. The others closed their eyes again.

"Found it!" Logan heard Bobby yell out. "I think I also just cut my hand on a piece of ice."

"Idiot." Rilou muttered. Logan was rammed in the chest and flew back, slamming his back on the icy dome wall, making the room echo the crash loudly. He stood, and staggered a bit before his regeneration fixed his spine. "Okay one more!" He heard Rilou say from in the darkness. He could hear their feet move across the ground. "Okay check here!" Another goat kicked him in the back. He skid and slashed out in front of him, hitting one charging at him. It hopped back out of reach immediately. "Logan!" Rilou yelled out to the darkness.

"Yeah!?"

"Run this way! Hurry!" Not needing to be told twice, he followed the sound of her and Bobby's footsteps, making his way through the darkness until he noticed they had stopped. Unfortunately, he didn't notice soon enough and crashed right into a seven year old tiny mutant, tripping over her and hitting the ground, landing on her. "Holy crap!"

"Fuck! Sorry kid." He grunted.

"You're freakin heavy!" She whined. She knew his bones were metal and all, but she didn't know he was this heavy! She was suffocating under him. "Get off me! Please!" She would have flailed her arms, but they were currently pinned under the heavy Fur-Face.

"Alright, alright. Sheesh." He got up, pulling the gasping kid.

"Air!" She breathed deeply, over exaggerating greatly.

"Dork." Logan ruffled her albino hair. She laughed.

"Rilou." Bobby said, rolling his eyes a bit. Rilou looked at him, still giggling. "Your plan? Now would be a great time." She gasped.

"Oh yeah!" She punched the wall of the dome, and it rumbled like a stampede of elephants. Then, it exploded. The other three parts of the wall they had messed with echoed with their own explosions. The dream dust she had put inside came out in enormous waves, covering the entire area. It stuck to the walls of the dome, the ceiling, and them as well. The ocean stormed around them, swallowing the three remaining nightmare mountain goats, but going around the three mutants like a force-field was around them.

"Cool." Bobby said, watching the ocean of dream dust move around them. The gold shimmers on the ceiling formed icicles and fell, making what looked like a cage in the center of the gold ocean. Rilou dissipated the ocean, leaving the large shimmering dream-icicles and the dust on the ceiling, making an awesome glowing roof night light. "I can see again!" Bobby cheered. "It's a miracle!" Inside her makeshift prison, the nightmare goats were lying unconscious on the cold ground.

"You couldn't have done that a bit sooner?" Logan asked, giving her a curious look.

"I didn't think of it till a bit ago." She mumbled, wobbling a little as she stood.

"Hey kid, you ok?" Her friend asked, using a rough hand on her shoulder to steady her.

"Yeah. I'm just-"Her legs gave out, and she would have fallen, but Logan had yanked her up with the same hand and was carrying her. "Tired."

"That blast probably did it." He carried her while he jogged out of the now clearly lit dome, Bobby right behind him. When they reached the end of the dimly lit tunnel, instead of entering the room with five tunnels, they exited the tunnel onto the side of the Mountain itself. "What the fuck?" He turned around to see if he took a wrong turn, but the tunnel was gone.

"What the hell?! Where's the tunnel?" Bobby yelled. The sun shined bright on the patch of snow lying where the tunnel was only seconds ago.

"Three hours and fifty four seconds. Tsk, tsk, Dream King, you're getting slower and slower every time we play a game." Logan ground his teeth together, knowing full well who that obnoxious Russian voice belonged too.

"I still did it didn't I?" Rilou grumbled back, too tired to deal with the Nightmare prick at the moment. She just wanted a nap. Or a hibernation like the nice bear Carrot would do when it got really cold.

"True, true. Sorry to pull you into the game…Bobby is it?" He hissed, turning to the ice mutant, who was glaring at him.

"Yeah, I bet."

"Oh ouch. No need to use that tone. You're safe, aren't you?"

"No thanks to you, Cerin." Rilou spat. "Are we done here?"

"Oh yes, how rude of me. Shall we go somewhere a bit…warmer?"

"I'm gonna regret this." Rilou said to herself, right as Cerin's nightmare vortex swallowed them, and they were gone.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Cold n Hot

"Are you sure you sent Bobby home? To the school?" Rilou hissed from her place on Logan's back. Cerin gave her a false hurt look.

"Of course. Honestly Dream Giver, I'm truly shocked to see that after all these years of knowing me, you still have so little trust in me. I have to say my feeling is hurt."

"Gosh I wonder why that could be." Rilou sarcastically barked at the same time Logan spat, "Fuck your feeling!"

"Ha, ha! You two really are birds of a feather. You know," He smirked, sitting on a red rock, "At first, I was confused as to why you of all people would be the Guardian, but now that I look at you two, I can't imagine anyone else doing that job in your place." Logan looked as confused as Rilou truly was.

"Honestly, Cerin," Rilou rolled her tiny multi-colored eyes," what is your deal with the guardian thing? My guardian died a long time ago."

"You've never heard of replacements? Or maybe the fact truly is that Kalos wasn't the REAL guardian the whole time. Think about that." Then, for some reason, it decided to click together just then.

"Oh God…you think Logan is…oh God!" Her face turned so red a tomato looked white in comparison. If Logan didn't know better, he'd of thought someone dipped her in lava for a few minutes.

"Oh my, you mean you just now figured it out? That's too funny." His sharp teeth shined brightly as he erupted into a fit of laughter. Logan's gaze shot between the two, not having a clue what was going on.

"Huh? What the hell does that mean?" He asked.

"You're The Guardian, Logan. It's very simple really. Shall I explain? It's why you can slice up my beautiful creations, and why your connection with little Dreamy Queen here is so strong." Cerin giggled like a gossiping school girl, and brushed a strand of his long dark hair from his face.

"Cerin, don't." Rilou warned. Logan's head was swiveling from confusing statement to confusing statement. He was finally getting some sort of clue about some of this, and it was only confusing him triple times the amount he already was. Guardian? Replacement? Fake? Real? Him? God he needed sleep. And who the fuck is Kalos? He sat down on a hot red rock and shifted Rilou, who was still in his arms. His head hurt and he needed a break. The only reason he sat down with the Nightmare King in front of him, was that he didn't find Cerin much of a threat. Just an obnoxious jerk that had no clue what personal space was. He looked around and finally noticed where they were. They were in a volcano. Literally. The lava was pooling not fifty feet below them. They were sitting on a rocky perch above the pit of gooey fire. The sky above them was cloudy, like it would start storming at any given moment. "You know what will happen to your game if you tell him."

"Maybe I don't care about my game anymore." Rilou sorted, shuffling in Logan's arms a little.

"You never get tired of yourself, much less your own games and ideas." She hissed. Cerin chuckled.

"Okay I digress. You're right. But, I think our story needs a hero in it, wouldn't you agree?" Cerin was pacing a bit now, looking at his perfectly filed nails as he did so. "It's been far too long since Kalos was in it. Almost-what was it-four, no…hmm." He gave himself a slightly weird look. "No three is far too short. Now how long was it?" He asked himself. He held a finger up to the two mutants. "Give me a moment, dears, let me think.

"Dear?!" They both spat back. Rilou made a gagging noise and literally turned a deep shade of green, while Logan turned red with embarrassment and enragement.

"I'm gonna throw up on you." The tiny one mumbled to her friend.

"Ditto kid." He said back. Rilou watched Cerin, noticing he was babbling to himself rather…oddly. What was off about this? She thought for a moment about this whole conversation, how long they had been talking, who they were talking with, and what about. Cerin's never been this open about his thoughts, even with the story. And now he's nearly completely changed the subject. Not to mention now he's just sitting here babbling to himself… She just couldn't help but feel a tad…off about something. What was wrong? She knew he really knew how long it had been since Kalos had been…discontinued…in their story, so why was he playing dumb and acting like he really knew nothing?

"Oh shit!" She yelped, earning a glance from Logan, and a knowing smirk from her long rival. "You've been wasting our game time ever since we got here!" She jabbed a finger at him, making Cerin laugh so hard he fell over.

"The game's been going on this whole time?!" Logan spat, jumping up so he was standing. Rilou hopped out of his arms, her bare feet being burnt by the volcanic rock. Now Cerin was downright crying he was laughing so hard. He had planned this as a joke in the game. And they BOTH fell for it!

"C'mon Fur-Face! We're low on time!" She ran across the rock and hopped from rock pallet to rock pallet, ignoring the lava bubbling under them, Logan hot on her trail.

"Thirty two minutes…Dears." Echoed behind them.

Logan and Rilou carefully, but quickly hopped from ledge to ledge, slowly lowering them closer to the bubbling lava.

"I swear I wasn't talking to that bastard for nearly four hours." Logan commented, making Rilou snort.

"He likes to use his nightmares to speed up the daylight, and in turn time itself."

"He can do that?"

"You weren't up there an hour were you?"

"Oh…yeah." Rilou giggled at her friend, before squealing to a stop as she reached the edge of the last ledge, stopping right as her toes went over the ledge. She balanced on the balls of her foot, ready to hop backwards and to safety. Unfortunately, Logan didn't stop fast enough, so when he skid to a halting stop, his leg hit the tiny mutants back, knocking her off the ledge. She yelped in surprise, falling about ten feet from the lava, before using her gold dream dust to make five claws and catch the side of the inner volcano wall.

"Kid!" She heard above her. She looked up to see Logan staring at her. She would have waved, but thought against it due to the current circumstances.

"Logan! I'm stuck!" He snorted, despite him being worried.

"Yeah, no kidding!"

"Can you get me back up?"

"Uhh…yeah. I think… Give me a second."

"There's your second now HELP ME!" She screamed sarcastically. Logan rolled his eyes and looked at the wall. He could try scaling it, but it looked like the wall would crumble under his weight. Sometimes being about three hundred pounds kinda sucked. He nearly had a heart attack when she slipped a whole foot before catching herself. The golden dream dust was dimming and slowly dissipating. She was struggling to keep herself dangling on the volcanoes inner wall, but she was slipping. She was tired from the blast of power in the icy mountain. "Logan!" She was slipping again, two of her five claws gone. "Help! Please!"

"I'm coming! Hang on!" Heavy or not, he didn't have much choice anymore. He jumped over the edge and unsheathed his claws, stabbing them into the wall. Because of his weight his claws slipped through and cut down the wall, like he had sliced at butter. He skid down the inner wall until he was six or seven feet above Rilou, who was on the verge of tears. Another claw was almost completely gone. Her bare hand clutching the rock along with her claw was burnt nearly black. Her feet were black and red all over. They looked like a molten rock. No doubt the parts of her chest, leg, and arm that's leaning on the wall were burnt the same way. In which case Logan didn't know which she was crying from the pain or because she was terrified. Probably both. He carefully shimmied a couple feet until his leg was next to the tiny mutant. He couldn't get any lower. The rock was too soft, he'd fall right into the lava. Honestly, he didn't know if the lava would kill him or not, but right now he'd rather not find out. Rilou's white hair was nearly black from the volcanoes ash, not to mention her once pale pink dress was now almost all dark grey. Completely covered in ashes.

"Rilou, grab my leg!" She looked up at his eyes with a look that said 'you are kidding, right?' and shook her head.

"This is your plan?!"

"Better than nothing!" He barked. "Now shut up and grab my fucking leg so I can pull you up! Or do you WANT to fall to your molten, fiery death?!" As Rilou thought this over for what felt like an hour but was really only about two seconds, she cried out and sprang for his leg, wrapping around it like a koala combined with a boa constrictor. Her little arms were clutched so tightly, they easily and quickly cut the circulation of blood in them. "Ow…dammit when I said grab that's not what I actually had in mind…" He began climbing back up, his claws clinging to the inside of the wall as he did so. Rilou's arms were tired. She could barely keep her eyes open and her dream dust powers were completely drained. As Logan climbed, he noticed Rilou's arms loosening their hold on his leg. He nearly reached the top of the wall, where the ledge she had fallen from laid, when she moaned.

"Lo…gan…" She mumbled in a whisper. "I…I'm gonna…fall…" Her arms went limp right after, and she fell.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 14: Cold n Hot

"Are you sure you sent Bobby home? To the school?" Rilou hissed from her place on Logan's back. Cerin gave her a false hurt look.

"Of course. Honestly Dream Giver, I'm truly shocked to see that after all these years of knowing me, you still have so little trust in me. I have to say my feeling is hurt."

"Gosh I wonder why that could be." Rilou sarcastically barked at the same time Logan spat, "Fuck your feeling!"

"Ha, ha! You two really are birds of a feather. You know," He smirked, sitting on a red rock, "At first, I was confused as to why you of all people would be the Guardian, but now that I look at you two, I can't imagine anyone else doing that job in your place." Logan looked as confused as Rilou truly was.

"Honestly, Cerin," Rilou rolled her tiny multi-colored eyes," what is your deal with the guardian thing? My guardian died a long time ago."

"You've never heard of replacements? Or maybe the fact truly is that Kalos wasn't the REAL guardian the whole time. Think about that." Then, for some reason, it decided to click together just then.

"Oh God…you think Logan is…oh God!" Her face turned so red a tomato looked white in comparison. If Logan didn't know better, he'd of thought someone dipped her in lava for a few minutes.

"Oh my, you mean you just now figured it out? That's too funny." His sharp teeth shined brightly as he erupted into a fit of laughter. Logan's gaze shot between the two, not having a clue what was going on.

"Huh? What the hell does that mean?" He asked.

"You're The Guardian, Logan. It's very simple really. Shall I explain? It's why you can slice up my beautiful creations, and why your connection with little Dreamy Queen here is so strong." Cerin giggled like a gossiping school girl, and brushed a strand of his long dark hair from his face.

"Cerin, don't." Rilou warned. Logan's head was swiveling from confusing statement to confusing statement. He was finally getting some sort of clue about some of this, and it was only confusing him triple times the amount he already was. Guardian? Replacement? Fake? Real? Him? God he needed sleep. And who the fuck is Kalos? He sat down on a hot red rock and shifted Rilou, who was still in his arms. His head hurt and he needed a break. The only reason he sat down with the Nightmare King in front of him, was that he didn't find Cerin much of a threat. Just an obnoxious jerk that had no clue what personal space was. He looked around and finally noticed where they were. They were in a volcano. Literally. The lava was pooling not fifty feet below them. They were sitting on a rocky perch above the pit of gooey fire. The sky above them was cloudy, like it would start storming at any given moment. "You know what will happen to your game if you tell him."

"Maybe I don't care about my game anymore." Rilou sorted, shuffling in Logan's arms a little.

"You never get tired of yourself, much less your own games and ideas." She hissed. Cerin chuckled.

"Okay I digress. You're right. But, I think our story needs a hero in it, wouldn't you agree?" Cerin was pacing a bit now, looking at his perfectly filed nails as he did so. "It's been far too long since Kalos was in it. Almost-what was it-four, no…hmm." He gave himself a slightly weird look. "No three is far too short. Now how long was it?" He asked himself. He held a finger up to the two mutants. "Give me a moment, dears, let me think.

"Dear?!" They both spat back. Rilou made a gagging noise and literally turned a deep shade of green, while Logan turned red with embarrassment and enragement.

"I'm gonna throw up on you." The tiny one mumbled to her friend.

"Ditto kid." He said back. Rilou watched Cerin, noticing he was babbling to himself rather…oddly. What was off about this? She thought for a moment about this whole conversation, how long they had been talking, who they were talking with, and what about. Cerin's never been this open about his thoughts, even with the story. And now he's nearly completely changed the subject. Not to mention now he's just sitting here babbling to himself… She just couldn't help but feel a tad…off about something. What was wrong? She knew he really knew how long it had been since Kalos had been…discontinued…in their story, so why was he playing dumb and acting like he really knew nothing?

"Oh shit!" She yelped, earning a glance from Logan, and a knowing smirk from her long rival. "You've been wasting our game time ever since we got here!" She jabbed a finger at him, making Cerin laugh so hard he fell over.

"The game's been going on this whole time?!" Logan spat, jumping up so he was standing. Rilou hopped out of his arms, her bare feet being burnt by the volcanic rock. Now Cerin was downright crying he was laughing so hard. He had planned this as a joke in the game. And they BOTH fell for it!

"C'mon Fur-Face! We're low on time!" She ran across the rock and hopped from rock pallet to rock pallet, ignoring the lava bubbling under them, Logan hot on her trail.

"Thirty two minutes…Dears." Echoed behind them.

Logan and Rilou carefully, but quickly hopped from ledge to ledge, slowly lowering them closer to the bubbling lava.

"I swear I wasn't talking to that bastard for nearly four hours." Logan commented, making Rilou snort.

"He likes to use his nightmares to speed up the daylight, and in turn time itself."

"He can do that?"

"You weren't up there an hour were you?"

"Oh…yeah." Rilou giggled at her friend, before squealing to a stop as she reached the edge of the last ledge, stopping right as her toes went over the ledge. She balanced on the balls of her foot, ready to hop backwards and to safety. Unfortunately, Logan didn't stop fast enough, so when he skid to a halting stop, his leg hit the tiny mutants back, knocking her off the ledge. She yelped in surprise, falling about ten feet from the lava, before using her gold dream dust to make five claws and catch the side of the inner volcano wall.

"Kid!" She heard above her. She looked up to see Logan staring at her. She would have waved, but thought against it due to the current circumstances.

"Logan! I'm stuck!" He snorted, despite him being worried.

"Yeah, no kidding!"

"Can you get me back up?"

"Uhh…yeah. I think… Give me a second."

"There's your second now HELP ME!" She screamed sarcastically. Logan rolled his eyes and looked at the wall. He could try scaling it, but it looked like the wall would crumble under his weight. Sometimes being about three hundred pounds kinda sucked. He nearly had a heart attack when she slipped a whole foot before catching herself. The golden dream dust was dimming and slowly dissipating. She was struggling to keep herself dangling on the volcanoes inner wall, but she was slipping. She was tired from the blast of power in the icy mountain. "Logan!" She was slipping again, two of her five claws gone. "Help! Please!"

"I'm coming! Hang on!" Heavy or not, he didn't have much choice anymore. He jumped over the edge and unsheathed his claws, stabbing them into the wall. Because of his weight his claws slipped through and cut down the wall, like he had sliced at butter. He skid down the inner wall until he was six or seven feet above Rilou, who was on the verge of tears. Another claw was almost completely gone. Her bare hand clutching the rock along with her claw was burnt nearly black. Her feet were black and red all over. They looked like a molten rock. No doubt the parts of her chest, leg, and arm that's leaning on the wall were burnt the same way. In which case Logan didn't know which she was crying from the pain or because she was terrified. Probably both. He carefully shimmied a couple feet until his leg was next to the tiny mutant. He couldn't get any lower. The rock was too soft, he'd fall right into the lava. Honestly, he didn't know if the lava would kill him or not, but right now he'd rather not find out. Rilou's white hair was nearly black from the volcanoes ash, not to mention her once pale pink dress was now almost all dark grey. Completely covered in ashes.

"Rilou, grab my leg!" She looked up at his eyes with a look that said 'you are kidding, right?' and shook her head.

"This is your plan?!"

"Better than nothing!" He barked. "Now shut up and grab my fucking leg so I can pull you up! Or do you WANT to fall to your molten, fiery death?!" As Rilou thought this over for what felt like an hour but was really only about two seconds, she cried out and sprang for his leg, wrapping around it like a koala combined with a boa constrictor. Her little arms were clutched so tightly, they easily and quickly cut the circulation of blood in them. "Ow…dammit when I said grab that's not what I actually had in mind…" He began climbing back up, his claws clinging to the inside of the wall as he did so. Rilou's arms were tired. She could barely keep her eyes open and her dream dust powers were completely drained. As Logan climbed, he noticed Rilou's arms loosening their hold on his leg. He nearly reached the top of the wall, where the ledge she had fallen from laid, when she moaned.

"Lo…gan…" She mumbled in a whisper. "I…I'm gonna…fall…" Her arms went limp right after, and she fell.


	16. Chapter 16

**Over 2000 view?! Amazing! Sorry this took so long to update, I was really sick then my PC crashed on me so I couldn't write for a while.**

Chapter 16: Decrepit Nightmare

"Rilou!" Logan's voice cut through the darkness, successfully ripping her from her dark pain filled abyss. She opened her eyes, and shot up from her place on the sofa, landing gracefully face first onto the rug. Wait…rug? Sofa? She twisted her head in all directions as she stood up, and sure enough, she was in her and Logan's room, back at the school. But something was wrong. It didn't look, normal. At all. It looked like this place had been left to rot for hundreds of years. Everything was moldy and old. There was a light smog in the air. The couch was musky and moldy, like it had been left in a swamp to rot. The TV was bashed in, looks like it was with a hammer or a bat. The coffee tables' glass was now covered in green moss, with vines hanging from the edges. There was a hole in the wall that led outside, but a dense white fog didn't allow her to see very far.

"What happened?" She asked, not believing her eyes.

"You tell me. You're the one that did it." He huffed, pulling the albino up so she was clutching his arm like a baby koala, then made his way to the musky kitchen. With much effort and a couple curse words, Logan opened the fridge. It was empty, minus a fresh six pack. Weird. "What luck." He mused, grabbing one and popping it open.

"Really? Right now?" Rilou huffed at her friend. He shrugged, and shut the old, cracking, fridge door. "What happened at the volcano?"

"Basically? You fainted. You fell. I caught you. My claws slipped. We fell. Hit the lava. Wound up here." Every time he ended a blunt sentence, he took a swig of his drink. Seeing it was empty, he opened the rotting fridge door, and pulled out another.

"Hmm, so the lava didn't kill us."

"Unless this is hell." Logan interjected, taking a drink.

"I doubt it. You're not bad enough to go to hell Fur-Face, sorry." She commented, climbing from his arm to his shoulder, letting her legs dangle next to his back. She glanced at a clock that was hanging on the wall next to the hall that led to her room, Logan's room, and the bathroom. The gold and polished wood clock was untouched. It shined like it had been made and polished just moments before she had noticed it. The only weird thing about it, were the hands. Both hands were twisted and bent. It was stopped. No movement came from it. "I think…we might be in a form of hypnagogia." Logan gave her a look that made her giggle. "Half sleep, half awake. We're in a dimension that is half reality and is half dream realm. It's surprising though, usually during hypnagogia the affected person isn't aware of it, nor does he or she have any control over themselves or what's happening during the time period it's occurring." She mused. "How strange."

"You think this is a part of your buddy's game?" Logan asked, making his way to the dorm room's front door.

"Probably not." Rilou sighed. "For once I wish it was. Cerin doesn't like this realm."

"Nightmare Man is afraid of this crap?" He guessed. Rilou shrugged.

"He has no control here, if this really is here." She said, fixing her grip on Logan's shoulder. He opened the door and it surprised them. More so the male. It opened to what looked like an asylum of sorts. Empty, old, and rotting away, more so than the room they were just in. Blood stained spots of the walls. Some were just spots, others were just plain drenched in the red liquid. Some of the long hall's lights were flickering like a creepy horror game. Like the moment right before a jump scare. Rilou gulped. Logan went on edge once he smelled the rotting blood. He unsheathed his claws, just to be on the safe side.

"There anything that can hurt us here?" Rilou shrugged.

"Depends on whose dream this is. It's one of ours." She gulped. "And if that's the case I'd say yes no matter which it is."

"I'm gonna go ahead and assume that you're buddy is up to this." He said again, walking through the door, and into the asylum's hall. As soon as his foot left the door, it slammed shut on its own, then melted into the wall, disappearing completely.

"I'm telling you different but who am I to talk? I'm just a kid." Rilou grunted in annoyance. Logan made his way down the decrepit hall, Rilou dangling on his shoulder lightly squeezing her little noodle arms around his neck every once in a while. She was tense. Who wouldn't be? Logan looked into every cell door they passed by, each being fairly similar. A moldy or bloody messy bed, with stains all over the walls and tools spread on old surgery tables. Oddly, the tools were stainless and looked brand new. Logan's senses were on edge. All he could smell was blood and rust. It burned his sense of smell to the point where he had to cover his nose with one hand.

"I don't recognize this place." He grunted bluntly, receiving a small hum from his little partner.

"I wouldn't doubt it." Rilou said, hopping down from her perch and walked beside him. "I miss Carrot." She mused out loud, making Logan chuckle, despite their situation.

"And I'm sure Carrot misses being your fluffy pony very much." He smirked down at her as they walked down the nightmare before them. "Question." He said suddenly after a few moments of silence, making Rilou jump a bit.

"Yeah?"

"Why is your pretty boy nightmare bud scared of this place?" He asked. "I mean I'll admit, it's no picnic but still. I thought he was king of nightmares and all."

"Being in the 'half-realm' isn't a picnic, obviously." She sighed. "Cerin doesn't like anything he can't control. He likes to have power. To have no disadvantages. He hates being reminded of the past as well, so naturally, this place would not be a likely place to find him." He thought about what she said. "Neither do I." She added with a shudder.

"I don't doubt it kid." He nodded as they came to a four way turn in the hall. "This isn't a place for any kid. Especially one like yourself."

"Thanks." She muttered. She didn't stop moving, turning to go down the left hall, leaving Logan to catch up. He watched her. She didn't look scared, nor did she look freaked when she stepped into a pool of drying blood. It was as if she was used to it, and to add to the freakiness, it was as if she knew where she was going. Maybe this wasn't his dream after all. They walked together through the corridor, hearing different, complex noises here and there. At one point, a scream erupted in the room to their right the moment they passed it, but it was completely empty when they ran in. "Torture room. Lovely." Rilou mused, inwardly shuddering at the sight of the sparkling clean, new looking torture devices.

"C'mon kid, let's go." He turned to leave, but she was rooted to the ground. She knew this place, she'd been here. Those devices, she'd felt them. She knew what they did and how much they hurt.

"You know," She said, making Logan turn to her in confusion, "it's funny. When we first got here, I thought something was wrong. I felt off about this place. Like, it was familiar, but different somehow, when in truth it hasn't changed at all. I should have noticed right off the bat. I thought this had to do with your unstable nightmares, when in fact they're a collaboration of both our minds. The blood is yours, the place is mine." She turned to him. "The scream we heard was mine."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: A nightmare's setting

"Well that didn't work." A scientist man said, looking at the eyeless girl writhing in pain, strapped to the spikey chair. A clamp was attached to her finger. Another doctor nodded to the man holding the clamp, and he squeezed the clamp harshly, snapping her nail clean off again and again, taking some skin with each nail that was torn uprooted from her fingers. A piercing scream of agony filled the room as the last nail snapped back into her throbbing finger.

"It's no use, she doesn't regenerate those body parts." The scientist man said in a disappointed tone. The little eyeless girl would have cried if she had the eyes to. They unclamped her bloody hand, and unstrapped her from the chair.

"This way." A scientist said. "Stand here." He placed the eyeless subject in front of the drill. He picked her hand up and placed it on the wall. He then grabbed the drill and a nail. "Don't move." He ordered. The little girl trembled, being blind not helping her fear in the slightest, but nodded none the less. She knew quite well what happens when you disobey these menacing, uncaring, heartless people. He took the drill, and pierced the center of her hand, drilling it to the wall, then copied with the other hand.

"Leave her there. We'll see what happens." A lady scientist said.

"How long?" The man with the drill asked.

"One week, five days." The old man that tells everyone what to do said. The girl always knew it was him, despite her loss of vision. He had a cranky, croaky voice that makes the hell hounds shiver. She heard their footsteps get quiet and the big metal door slam shut, and that's when she knew she was alone. Once that fact rang through her mind she let herself go, and cried. For minuets, hours, and days on end. No tears could be shed, as much as she cried. They could not come anymore. They had stolen them from her. They had stolen…everything from her.

(End Flashback)

Logan shot up from his spot on the ground with sweat running down his face. Rilou had gotten tired and needed a break so she and Logan had sat with their backs leaning on the wall. She had fallen asleep, using the clawed mutant's lap as a pillow while Logan kept watch. Apparently after some time he must have dozed off. He was almost never happier to wake up. That eyeless girl he watched in his nightmare was…he looked down at his little friend and shuttered. The shutter seemed to wake the kid up, because she yawned and stretched, then opened her multicolored eyes she hadn't had in his tormenting nightmare.

"You ok Logan? You're really pale." She sat up, and felt his sweaty forehead. "Are you getting sick?" He shook his head, liking her really cold hand on his hot head.

"Nah I'm good kid. Thanks for the thought though." He said, chuckling at nothing. Rilou didn't drop it though, much to his dismay.

"You had a nightmare, didn't you?" She guessed. He didn't have to answer. His stare told her what she needed. "Sorry." She placed her little hand back on his forehead and made it shimmer with her gold dream dust. She searched his dreams, looking for the source, until she found it. She found what he saw and gave him a pitiful look. She released his forehead and sighed, sliding over so about a foot of air was in between them. "Sorry you had to see that." Rilou muttered. Logan's head snapped to her. "Even I got the luxury of not having to watch that." She looked to her fingers where her nails should be but never will. Logan looked at her little fragile fingers.

"So that really happened." He said more than asked. "Who were those people?" Rilou shrugged.

"Not sure. They looked and sounded the same, except for Mr. Boss man. He told everyone what to do. And it never ended nice." She snorted at her own words. "Well, then again none of them were really nice."

"Sorry kid." Logan muttered. Rilou full out laughed at that, making her friend give him the weirdest look EVER.

"About what? I'm alive. I'm here. Not there. You had nothing to do with what you saw. Who cares? Why are you apologizing?" She said. Logan opened his mouth to say something, but Rilou spoke again first. "Logan don't worry about it. About me. Okay? I'm your friend, not the other way around. You're the real reason I'm here ok? I'm here to help you so don't worry. As far as any of this goes, Cerin and I, we're just characters in this story. You're the guardian because you make the story real." Logan stared at her for a long time before he shook his head.

"Why must everyone I work with talk in riddles that are twisted, covered in tar, and in an ancient text no one knows anymore?" He mused to himself. Rilou shrugged.

"It makes the storyline more interesting and gives the author more story to go on I guess." She shrugged. They stood up, and brushed off some dust that was on them.

"Where the hell did this dust come from?"

"Probably the time route of this mid-dream world." She shrugged again. They walked down the hall and Logan immediately noticed something was different. The blood was disappearing from the floors and walls. The lights weren't flickering and the halls seemed to become more…house like. The floor was turning to carpet and the walls were being replaced by a yellow-orange wallpaper with white vine patterns.

"Now what?" Rilou sighed, stopping at the top of some stairs that appeared before them.

"Where is this?" Logan asked the air around them.

"A chapter behind us." Rilou answered, stepping slowly down the steps. As they walked, they entered a living room. It had brown leather sofas. Two to be exact. Paintings of war and peace hung on the walls. Four windows were on the walls around the paintings. "I haven't seen this place in a long time. A whole chapter ago. Feels more like ages." Rilou said, thinking about something Logan couldn't guess. He looked around the room, noticing a small table with a framed photo on it. He looked closer, picking it up. There were three people in it. One was a little girl with white hair and pigtails. Her eyes were a multicolored mess like now. The other was a boy filing his nails, a playful smirk on his dumb Russian face. His hair was back in the tight ponytail. His eyes piercing into the camera lens when this was taken. The third was a boy Logan didn't know. He had insanely messy red hair and freckles covering his cheeks. Goggles were around his eyes. A single fang stuck out of his mouth and red and black wings were sticking from his back.

"That's us before this whole mess." Rilou said, startling Logan at the sudden noise. "Me, Cerin, and Rascal." She gazed longingly at the picture. "That was us after we escaped that mean place. Rascal helped us, he was the first guardian."


End file.
